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Learn more at apu.apus.edu slash military. Hold on to the memories. They will hold on to you, everybody. Welcome to the Football Ramble. Forrester on the march. A man said he won a match. It's Monday, 30th of December. I'm Marcus Speller. I'm Jim Campbell. And I'm Luke Moore. ♪♪♪

Welcome one and all to the Football Ramble. It's still 2024. Just though, everybody just. Depends on when you're listening to this. Well, those who are listening to this straight off the bat, hot off the press, know exactly what I'm talking about, Lukey Moore. They do. And the ones who don't, who come along late, we don't want them.

Well, we'll have them. We'll have them. Yeah, but they've got to earn their place in our affections, haven't they? Absolutely. Just like you actually with me and Marcus, Jim. Well, indeed. But didn't he earn it though, Luke? Didn't he just? We haven't got time for that now. I put it to you guys. I know we're doing Reacts tonight and obviously Reacts comes out on New Year's Eve.

And New Year's Eve is obviously its own thing. Is this the final show of the Christmas Gooch? Could be. Yeah, I'd say so. I feel Gucci. I don't know about you. I feel really Gucci at the moment. Very much so. Yeah, Gucci is a very American term. I know you prefer Buffman's Bridge, which is probably a very... I do, yeah. ...colloquial sort of Portsmouth area term, Luke, I'm assuming. Jim's always said Perineum before, not Graham Gooch. Jim is...

He's a real wordsmith and a stickler for the rules. So he will crack open the dictionary where necessary. There's a lot of options. Maybe he just wants to appeal to our American listeners. It's very forward thinking of him. The only thing standing in the way of us not cracking America is not saying the word Gooch enough. Yes, yes, absolutely right. Absolutely right. Gentlemen, we must start today's show talking about Nottingham Forest. They beat Everton 2-0. They are second in...

in the Premier League once again Nuno Espirito Santo is piling on egg on my face because I thought you'd be the first to go it's absolutely incredible the fans left Goodison Park singing we're going to win the league now as you said Luke on a recent ramble it may well have been the last one

Liverpool are kind of ruining this Premier League for everybody because if they weren't so bloody good... Eight points clear with a game in hand. Pathetic. It would be sensational if they just lost a couple more games. But, of course, Forest, the only side to beat Liverpool this season, but they're second in the league, Luke Moore. It is...

Not quite Brian Clough-esque, because they'd probably be first if he was at the helm in his pomp. They'd be in the top one, wouldn't they? They would be in the top one. But my goodness, Nottingham Forest, so far, the team of the season, you would say, although Liverpool fans might be saying, come on, what about us? But what a story this is so far. I love that they're second in the league and no one has scored fewer goals than them in the top half. LAUGHTER

It's an amazingly efficient kind of way of going about things. They obviously don't concede an awful lot either. But second in the league with a goal difference of plus seven is amazing at this stage of the season. Capello-Malans-esque.

It kind of is a little bit. Was that two points for a win though? Which to me is crazy now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, two points for a win just seems like an absolutely disgraceful way to play football. But that's another story. They've been brilliant. And you know, you said that, you know, egg is being piled on your face because of your shout around Espirito Santo. I mean, it's taken the heat off me in a massive way because I said Marescu will be the first to go. Yeah.

And now they're languishing Marcus in fourth. No one's talking about it. They lost their last game, so it's fine. But they've been brilliant. And I said on Friday's show that they've got an exceptional balance to their team. They've got a situation where everyone seems to know the job they're doing and how they do it. And going into this game, I actually thought, and I'm happy to say it after the event, because it was wrong anyway, but I...

I've kind of wondered whether they might find it quite hard to break down Everton, who, to be fair to them, in their last few games have been pretty robust. I mean, they've only conceded one goal in their last three. They closed out a draw with Man City away from home. I wondered whether Everton were going to frustrate them. But the combination of, and this is a kind of extrapolation of what I was saying on Friday, is

the way that the wide forward players drag the play out and the way that Chris Wood is hustle and bustle and does that proper old-fashioned centre-forward work, almost like a peak Michel Antonio, but with added goals, means that he can free up Morgan Gibbs-White, who again was absolutely sensational against Everton. He has all the space in the world to

to do his thing is very difficult to pick up. He operates in those areas where, you know, if you look at, say, Brandt White and Tarkowski, now both defenders at different stages of their career, but both defenders of a certain type who, dare I say, aren't going to feel that comfortable following Gibbs White around, and nor should they be. And then what you're looking at is you're going to need someone like Decore or Gay to have a really good game, keeping them quiet. And neither of those things happened.

and Forrest were able to capitalise. But they're a great team and I think also they've got no other kind of responsibilities between now and the end of the season, which should be really exciting for Forrest fans. They've got Luton at home in the cup. That's basically it. So, you know, I'm not quite saying they're on the verge of something special, Marcus, because that's your job.

But I would be very, very excited if I was a Forest fan. Go on the tricky trees. Absolutely. Jim, Luke described Chris Wood there as a peak Michael Antonio with added goals. Well, I would go with the BBC in pushing that a bit further out because somebody in the BBC described him as Christian Vieri-esque.

That's nice. That's the sign of a brave broadcaster that. Braver than me. But you can see that though. The size of the guy and all that kind of stuff. But that goal he scored against Everton, it was absolutely...

Absolutely delightful. Lovely volleyed lob. It was a volleyed lob, wasn't it? A vlob. Yeah, how often do you see those? It was a beautiful, beautiful goal to round off, yet again, a really kind of complete forward performance from him. One of the things I really love about Forrest, because as we've already touched on, it's kind of amazing that they're doing this with such low possession. Because you see teams play like that a lot, but rarely with this much success.

when they do kind of take charge of the ball and kind of launch an attack, they really sort of take charge of the match. You know, there's a real sort of authority to them. And what I love about them at the moment is they look like a team who know they're good. Yes. And it's a very simple thing, but...

confidence in football is a really changeable thing. And outside of the usual suspects, you know, the teams that are used to winning every week, you don't necessarily team who... You don't necessarily see that many teams have that kind of swagger about them. But Forest at the moment, they're right in the crest of this wave. It's almost like...

they've got very comfortable with the idea that they are up in this part of the table and they just want to see how far they can take it very clearly it's like as you say there's sort of nothing to lose they've got very little on their plate compared to the teams they're up there competing with you just wonder how far they can take it and they do look like a team will be able to keep the momentum going because they're just enjoying it so much and they play in this way that no one can seem to figure out I think

probably the main negative from the weekend is of course losing Murillo I don't know how long he's going to be out for so hopefully it won't be very long but it didn't affect them against Everton it didn't no but Everton have scored the second fewest goals in the league I think teams with more attacking potency will kind of be a bigger challenge without him erm

But like I say, hopefully he isn't going to be with him too long. There's a kind of feeling around this type of thing with a club like Nottingham Forest. You've had like their best years have been many, many years ago. And we remembered them in the Premier League 25 years ago, whatever, 30 years ago, maybe. But now,

But their golden period is, of course, around the time that I was born. So a long time ago. So they're almost like a sleeping giant of a club. And if you look at what they've been able to do, and it's the same with Villa, it's the same with Leicester when they won the league, you've got a situation where it feels to me, and maybe I'm projecting here, but it feels to me

that they're able to humble themselves they're able to go do you know what if we all work really fucking hard together we can achieve something extraordinary and I think that is an incredible frustration to teams like Everton to teams like Spurs to teams who should be doing better but aren't who

whose fans rightly look at a Forrester or a Villa or a Leicester and say, why can't we do that? It seems to happen too often for it to be a coincidence. It's happening with Fulham this season. It's happening with Bournemouth this season. It's happening with Brighton. You know, the teams that are struggling, Spurs, Man United, now Man City,

for a short period at least, they seem to have, particularly in a Spurs or a Man Utd case, they have an idea of what they are. And the fact that they're not that at the moment is impossible for them to get past. Whereas teams like Forest and Villa and Leicester can go, do you know what, actually, it's us against everyone else.

No one fancies us for this, but we can do it, right? Because we can tap into this history we've got. We can tap into the fact we've got a huge fan base and all this other stuff. And they seem to go and be able to do extraordinary things, whether it's winning the league or finishing fourth or whatever Forrest go on to do. I think it's a really interesting phenomenon. The reason I thought of it is because, you know, it was a really sharp contrast because Forrest are now doing...

against the team that want to do this, you know, what Everton want to do, right? Everton can't get anything going. You know, they can't do anything and they haven't been able to do anything for years. Yet Forrest can come in a couple of seasons in the Premier League and be able to kind of push on. It's a really interesting phenomenon. I don't know what you think about that, Marcus. No, no, it is. I mean, I think that Everton are a particular example. I mean, if you mention enough clubs, then actually...

I think you might undermine your point because if you say, well, they're doing it, they're doing it. Yeah, but a few seasons ago, they weren't. I think it's a specific group of clubs you're talking about. You could say... But when the ingredients are right, I mean. When the ingredients are right, they seem to do it. Yeah, I think, you know, Everton are an obvious example with that. West Ham might be as well, although they did win the Conference League not that long ago, so they have had a bit of glory. And then Spurs, yeah, Pochettino really in the last sort of handful of years, you know, has been the only one that managed to kind of elevate them a bit.

But I think having old Nuno Espirito Santo Claus at the helm has helped Forrest immensely. Because it's funny, isn't it? Because after the Spurs gig, which went very, very badly for Santo, his stock was fairly low, having been quite high, hence getting the Spurs job. Because the Spurs, he's a big job. Let's not be silly. He did very well at Wolves, of course, you know.

Got them promoted very impressively and established a side. You talk about these sides and sleeping giants and massive clubs. Well, Wolves, I know they'd been in the Premier League before Santo, but they were one of those clubs, weren't they? For ages thinking, how are they not a mainstay in the Premier League? How are they often struggling to get promoted? Yeah.

And so having been, as I say, I know they were in the Prem before Nuno was there, but he established them immediately as a Premier League club, which is no mean feat. So he got huge credit for that and rightly so. Goes to Spurs, doesn't work out and then pops up at Forest, takes over when they need to be saved and it's all a bit chaotic again.

Now, someone that we haven't mentioned because it's been fairly calm is Marinakis. Now, how much credit does he take? Because it seemed incredibly unlikely that this would go well for Forrest. It's all calm and cohesive there, and it seems unified, which are words we don't really associate with Forrest.

That man, I think it's fair to say. I mean, we remember all sorts of nonsense last season and Klattenberg getting involved and refereeing decisions being called out. That was crazy. To go from that to this seems very unlikely. Indeed it does. You have to give credit where credit's due, I suppose. Well, Marcus, do you give credit to Maranakis or do you give credit to Nuno for sort of crafting this stability out of kind of...

chaotic elements. Well, possibly, but I mean...

if things are going bad at clubs, we often blame the ownership. Yeah, but he's got nothing to complain about, has he? That's why. Yeah, well, okay, fine. I mean, I think you've got to look at Nuno and the players here, really. But I just thought it's worth mentioning the man just to remind us all that he's still in charge of that club. My feeling with an owner like Maranakis is just that if it's going badly, it'll tend to go really badly because he can't help but make things worse. And if it's going well and he can't find anything to interfere with, then...

then it's going to go well. I mean, that's how I feel about it. I think the Nuno point's a really interesting one because I said something about this on Friday where I was thinking that the only time where he's done...

is Spurs, right? As a manager, really. I mean, he delivered Champions League football to Valencia. I think he actually ended up resigning after a pretty poor start to the following season. But I mean, he did that. He seems to have done well wherever else he's gone. And even the Spurs thing, I mean, I'm kind of reaching back into the memory banks here. But it does seem weird in retrospect that, you know,

He was fired on the 1st of November, very, very early. And they hired Antonio Conte the next day. So it does seem to me a bit like, well, maybe there was an opportunity there and Spurs have made the decision to take the opportunity. It wasn't working out, though. No, no, I'm sure. And I was going to say, Spurs fans who know much more about this than me go, well, look, it was completely unrescuable, totally untenable, and it was the right thing to do. And that's fine. No one's perfect. I still do think, you know, that...

If you are a Spurs fan, you're thinking, well, I mean, Conte's now flying at Napoli and Nuno's flying here at Forest. They're both second in their respective leagues. What is it about us, you know? Well, there is that. I think that goes into your previous point about certain clubs with certain mindsets. They can't get out of their own way a lot of the time. Spurs have a bit of that as well. Now, I'm not saying, I'm not blaming it on the fans for crying. Not at all. I'm not saying, oh, well, if you'd have just given Nuno a bit of time. But Nuno is, you've talked about Forest's lack of

they're scoring, but obviously they don't concede very much. Is it only what Arsenal and Liverpool have conceded fewer than them? It was like that at Wolves. It was always airtight at the back. Not many goals going forward, but still, you know, they win more often than they don't. And again, a mainstay in the Premier League. At Wolves, he had a certain defensive shape, which he's kind of mixed up a little bit at Forest, which is interesting. And perhaps he's,

He has his principles, which is clearly prioritise the defence, but he seems to be a bit more pragmatic maybe than I perhaps thought, although I didn't think he was too idealistic.

But if you look at the spine of that team, my goodness, you know, sells in goal. Very underrated goalkeeper. He's having a great season. You mentioned Murillo, but Milenkovic is one of the players of the season so far. He's been phenomenal. Yeah, Morato came in, didn't he, yesterday and it seems to have slotted in nicely. Sosa came in on the left-hand side as well. Yeah, but Milenkovic, Luke, coming in from a different league.

he has been sensational at the back for Forrest in front of him I know Yates didn't play against Everton but you've got a settled midfield you've got Gibbs White there who what a goal by the way against Everton we talked about his play just the way to stick one past England's number one at the moment you've got to be good

And then, of course, in front of him, you've got Woods. Then you've got the pace and the trickery and the flair on the wings as well. You've said it before, Luke. They have great balance to this side. Yeah, they do. And it's all there to see. A couple of stats I'd like to chuck in. First time Forest have won at Liverpool and Everton in the same season since 1898. Quality. Quality.

They were pleased to get that monkey off their back, weren't they? Unbelievable. Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. Chris Wood, obviously we mentioned his goal. His 22 goals are Nuno Espirito Santo, the joint most by a Forest player under one manager since Stan Collymore under Frankie Clark in the 90s. Chris Wood in the same bracket now as Stan Collymore.

as long as he's not in the same car park as Dan Collymore Jim, it kind of bodes well. I think we can agree. The aforementioned Ryan Yates was suspended, which had caused worries among some of the Nottingham Forest faithful because they thought their record might end and their record is quite incredible.

they have featured a homegrown player in every single match they scored since 1941 and Nuno was actually asked about this pre-match and he said he's going to have to have a long deep think to how to maybe keep this record going but they put on the bench Zach Abbott who's 18 years old and apparently is doing very very well in the youth set up at Forest so it it

some might say it's a slight sort of token effort but actually if you look at what Abbott's been doing in there it seems like he will graduate to the first team in due course but that's an astonishing he's a tricky sapling mate he's a tricky sapling

It's absolutely a tricky sapling and I think if they can go back to the shrubbery and find a few more, it'd be quite the arboretum. But I think, because Man Utd have got a similar one, haven't they, from the 30s. 1937. Yeah, there's so many subs on the bench these days that you can just make sure you keep that going. That's a really nice thing to do, right? It's great for the fans, it's great for the club's history and tradition. Obviously,

Premier League teams can have, what is it, nine subs now. So there's no reason you can't stick a youngster on just for the experience. And they should, at Premier League level at least, all have young players there kind of ready to go. Yeah, keep that record going. Well, look, great win for Forest. They're in second. I would say they're in a title race, but I think it's,

It's just Liverpool at the moment, isn't it? They need snookers to Forest and the other clubs. You never know because, I mean, look, you do never know. We don't want to go too over the top, but at the same time, we don't want to be too much of a killjoy either. Next few games they've got, they've got a chance to play Liverpool fairly soon.

play Wolves they've got games like Southampton Bournemouth Brighton Fulham they are good they're a good team they could rack up to them they've got to be looking at top four they have to be tapping into that Aston Villa vibe and their own history and they've got to get into the Champions League one thing we know is that you never know exactly

The Nuno Spirit of Santo Darby happened in North London, of course. Spurs 2, Wolves 2. He's everywhere today, Nuno. He deserves it. He's all over this run and order. Like a cheap suit. He's sparklies. We're just banking on him. Yeah, exactly. We're just overdrawing it. I was about to say, yeah, we're just in debt to him and whichever banks we bank with. Yes, Wolves, their revival under Olvita Pereira continues. Did

Did you see Pereira in the post-match interview when he was asked about He Chan's goal? And he said, was that off the training ground? He was like, oh, he looked like the cat that got the cream. Yeah, damn right, that was off the training ground. Because it obviously was. Anyone who's ever watched a football game can see that. It was an absolutely astonishingly accurate finish.

It was. I mean, he's right in the corner. But Luke, what I love is he went, well, we knew Spurs give away a lot of ground around there and so on. He was just straight to it and I thought, there we are. He's given absolutely no quarter. That's mad dog Victor. That's what we wanted. He just showed a little bit of something there. He's absolute Tom Berringer in platoon. Yeah. He just loves it. He just loves being in the thick of it. Some people aren't built for the real world.

I love that he's this much fun when it's going well. Yeah. So when it turns a corner a little bit and when they're under a little bit of pressure, I'm really looking forward to see how he reacts to that as well. Yeah, because anyone can go to Spurs. Given what we can see about the man. Anyone can go to Spurs and do well. Well, yeah. I mean, he wasn't a bad Spurs performer. Obviously, they didn't win the game. Oh, it just felt a bit flat.

Yeah. I know they had chances and I know that they, for example, had more shots than Wolves. But Wolves had more possession, you know, and it just felt a little bit flat. It just felt like, to me, it felt a bit like the crowd were...

oh here we go do you know what I mean here we go again kind of thing when Son had his penalty you thought yeah this isn't going it was a proper going through the motions penalty as well yeah he took ages didn't he it's easy to be wise after the fact on something like that but it did seem it seemed like he couldn't make his mind up almost I know what you mean I thought to myself yeah it was I understand he's you know senior player at the club and one of their

their top players and all that kind of stuff. But with that kind of body language, maybe could have given it to somebody else. I don't know. He's captain though, isn't he? He's not really sticking it out. Well, indeed, yeah. Good save though. I don't mean that. Oh, look, it was a good save. It was in really good form. Yeah. Yeah. It wasn't like, yeah, it wasn't a shocking penalty. It was like a P-roll or something. But I don't know. Could they have brought on Timo Werner to take it?

That's all I'm saying. He'd have kicked himself in the face. They did bring on Timo Werner at one point. Sadly, it wasn't to any kind of fruition whatsoever. But I think, I don't know, Spurs have got so many... They've got a lot of defensive players out. It's all very predictable. And I think that...

there's a chance it could get even worse for Spurs, chiefly because they seem to be so one-dimensional. They play in the same way. And as we've seen in the Premier League over and over again, and to be honest, it could come back to haunt Nottingham Forest as well. Other teams in the Premier League just work you out in the second half of the season. So the second games between the teams tend to be quite different on more than a few occasions. And if that's the case, then...

Doesn't bode well for them because they've got key players missing. They're so predictable. And, you know, they can't seem to put together any kind of control of a game. And do you know what? I'd even say, fine to say that, you know, Romero and Van de Ven and, you know, Vicario are all out. And obviously Porra was back yesterday. But,

The reality is they couldn't control games and not concede goals when they had those players back. It just seems to be a pure symptom of how they play. And I know that they probably had the best of it against Wolves on balance.

but it was nothing at all surprising about Wolves scoring late on and the reaction to it in the crowd seemed to be really interesting for me from the outside looking in it was like the Spurs fans they weren't even they were pissed off but it was like oh well obviously obviously that's going to happen because we can't fucking stop people scoring we cannot do it

There was a big kind of wide corridor for Strand Larson to get into. I was surprised by how much space he had that late in the game. And I think that's the issue, isn't it? Obviously, the personnel situation remains a problem. And I think Fraser Forster should have done better on that shot. Takes the game finished though, Jim, isn't it, Marcus? Yeah, lovely, lovely, lovely. You've got to lift it. You've got to smash it into the roof from that angle. Sure. But he's very late reacting to it, isn't it? I suppose it's...

Again, easy for me to say. But it does seem to be that, as you say, this is kind of the case, whoever is there. And the game management is something I need to look at. Surely you just tighten up in that situation. He doesn't believe... I mean, he's not said this directly, but he's said pretty much everything else. He doesn't believe in game management. He believes in playing a certain way. He said it before. This is who we are. And he keeps saying the same things. Ultimately, as I said before, it's going to cost him his job. Well, I would agree with you. I mean...

after that comment he made when they beat Manchester United 4-3 in the cup then he kind of grinned and went were you not entertained mate I feel now that a reporter is duty bound whoever's first on the scene with old Ange to say after a game like that and go well Ange we were entertained is that what you wanted

Yeah. I think also, sorry Jim, I was just going to say that, you know, they've got a game next where Newcastle come to town and Newcastle are super intense and in really good form. Well, they've picked it up, haven't they? Yeah, they have massively. And after that, they play Liverpool in the League Cup, which is their only chance of getting a bit of silverware, which Ange is guaranteed is going to happen ridiculously. Well, Europa League, you'd say, if they can hold it together.

Okay. I don't think even you think that. I don't think you even convince yourself of that. No, they've more chance of winning the Europa League than they have of beating Liverpool over two games and then beating Arsenal or Newcastle in the final. Well, it depends which way you look at it. I mean, there's so many games left in the Europa League. That's not necessarily the case. I mean, there's so many games. I mean, fair enough, the next game in the Europa League is against Elfsborg. There you go. Or Hoffenheim or someone. There you go. But...

This is all building up to me, giving you a lovely little wicked whisper, Marcus, and you derailed me. Okay. But I was going to come in and do a lovely little textbook ramble shout. Here we go. On the 12th of January, they travel to Tamworth in the FAK. That's all I'm saying. And that will be... Listen, and I'll add you a... Let me add another little bit of spice to proceedings to all of our listeners. Please. That game, quite simply, will be on television. So put your feet up.

And have a lovely time. What would you... Yeah, I mean, there is that one. There's also the small matter of Manchester City playing Salford City. Yeah, great. That's great as well. We'll get to Man City in a bit. Yes, please.

That's what the third round, Marcus, the third round of the FA Cup is beauty because you get so much football over Christmas and you really enjoy it and you think, oh, that's a shame it's gone now. January can be a bit depressing, a bit kind of damp and dark. And then all of a sudden you get games like this and there's always an upset, always. You just don't know where it's going to be. It's a beauty. It's great. It's like a horror movie. The killer's in one of the cupboards. Which one's he in? We don't know. I was thinking it was more like Pop-Up Pirate, but you went horror film.

Yeah, Pop-Up Pirate's fine. Lovely little throwback. Did you play a bit of Pop-Up Pirate over the Christmas break? I didn't, but I wish I did now. You could make a horror version of Pop-Up Pirate. You can have it all. There's so many versions of Pop-Up Pirate, which is basically the same game, but a different format. Because you've got the one where you have to take the teeth out the crocodile. You've got the one where you have to take the teeth out the shark. And you've got Buckaroo. All the same game, just different modes. That's great. I'm more sticking knives into a barrel.

I don't know who you are. But anyway, back to Pop-Up Pirate. That should be my tradition being from Portsmouth. It really should be. Stick him in a barrel with a hosepipe on him. Just to wrestle it back to Spurs very, very briefly because I think it's really important that we address the balance of...

on them because there was a number of years ago under Pochettino Spurs fans everywhere were massive fans of saying across the calendar year we had more points than anyone and if you take the year from January to December we were the best team to which everyone else with a brain in their head was like well that doesn't make any difference whatsoever but you know thanks for pointing it out and

Is it worth it in return, those Spurs fans completely acknowledging that in the year 2024, calendar year, which they're a fan of apparently, they have fallen 1-0 behind in 15 Premier League home games, which is the most of any club ever in the history of English football in a single calendar year. So if you want it one way, you've got to take it the other as well. And you're not entertained, mate. Exactly.

Coming up after this, Liverpool continue to do their thing and Man City finally won a game. It'll never last. This episode is sponsored by the Unfiltered Soccer Podcast. When it comes to men's soccer in the USA, Landon Donovan and Tim Howard have done it all. Now, the legendary Hall of Famers are teaming up again in their new show, the Unfiltered Soccer Podcast.

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To listen, just head to patreon.com forward slash football ramble to sign up now. Gentlemen, West Ham United 0, Liverpool 5. Ooh, blimey.

Yeah, it was pretty good, wasn't it? I think we're at the point now where we sort of have to acknowledge that this is the best Mo Salah has ever been. The form he's in is ridiculous. We already know he's an all-time Premier League great. We've already seen him win everything and achieve incredible things and kind of dazzle us with individual moments. But in this one game, he looked like a man with unlimited energy. Yeah.

He looks like a man playing in a lucid dream. Like he can just do whatever he decides to do to anyone for himself, for his team. Just both of his assists had moments of magic in them. The goal was really clinical. His movement was just impossible to deal with all game. Just absolutely phenomenal. It's an interesting angle, Jim. Luke, I'll put it to you. He should have had a hat trick.

He should have. He'd be kicking himself. And that's quite simply why Liverpool won't give him another contract. No, I agree with Jim. The only season that...

is comparable to how he's doing right now is his first season at Liverpool where they end up coming fourth I think he scored 44 goals in all competitions 32 league goals I mean he's on course for more than that at the moment obviously depends whether he stays fit because he's a little bit older now but he's been absolutely unplayable he really has and I think

And I feel for West Ham to an extent because they haven't been too bad in the last few games and they were looking like things were coming to fruition maybe. They're playing a slightly different way to Lepotegui's predecessor. It's kind of what West Ham fans wanted. And then with this, it's just stopped them in their tracks. It's really no fault of their own because Liverpool is so dominant and so good. And actually, speaking of Salah having a hat-trick,

it actually could have been a lot worse west ham ariola made a couple of really good early saves they could have scored um a couple of times before they opened the scoring which wasn't until half an hour in i mean um gapo put one on for salad was a good save salad put one back on for gapo couldn't quite get his head on it there was loads of opportunities for him to score more um and for a team to go you know away from home against the team who have been pretty in pretty decent form

and have something like 22 shots and just dominate totally is amazing. And I would just add finally that whether we like it or not, and I don't particularly like it because I prefer it to be a bit more competitive,

We're basically looking at the Premier League winners now, I think. I think it's very, very difficult to argue that... Because even if, say, Arsenal continue their current form, because on the form table, Arsenal are doing the same as Liverpool, right? It's the same form table, exactly. But they just can't make... They're still nine points behind. They can't make up enough ground. Chelsea aren't going to be consistent enough. Forrest are going to drop away. Man City are done in terms of this Premier League. So, unfortunately for fans of a

competitive Premier League it's a Liverpool title I think but I would also add finally finally finally off the back of that part of me is very happy for them because I think they deserved more than one Premier League title in that battle they had with City over those years and it felt like Man City won it and that's fine but it felt

It felt to me like it would have been a bit more even-handed if Liverpool had picked up one more Premier League and they didn't. So if they get one now, good for them. Just in the interest of balance there, Luke, when you say that's fuck Man City, that's fine. Obviously, we'll find out in due course whether it was fine. At the moment, it's fine, Marcus. Actually, Liverpool might have won loads of titles. Yeah, in the same way that

the same way the fire is very much contained in the kitchen at the moment the house in structure integrity is fine for now we shall see what oxygen gets poured on it later yeah

I think what I was going to say was that obviously it kind of gets forgotten now because it was a while ago but Liverpool winning that first title in 30 years or whatever it was at the time was a brilliant thing but it was the COVID season and they weren't able to do it in front of their fans so it seems almost fitting that

If Klopp couldn't do it in his last season, his predecessor or his successor rather can do it in the next season with a team essentially entirely made up of his signing. So, yeah, it's hard kind of not to put yourself in the shoes of those Liverpool fans and think it must be an absolutely phenomenal thing to be enjoying. I think you're right. The idea of them dropping, you know...

at least 10 points seems, I mean, even that seems fanciful. They might do it, but everyone else has to be perfect to take advantage of them dropping that many points. It just doesn't seem like it's very likely, does it? I think that's the other point, isn't it? That people often forget. Well, if they lose a few games, well, Arsenal have to be perfect. And I think Arsenal would be the only side for me that could catch them. But again, the way Liverpool are going about the business, there's a lot to do. Yeah, the only thing that's possible, if you want to look in the final angle,

which, you know, we should do because it's a football chat show, is that there's a bit of an unknown about it. It's that no one knows much about slot. No one knows how he deals with a setback, really. I mean, they lost one game very early in the season to Forest, you know, fine. But if they were to have a couple of duff results, like, for example, you know, this is obviously never going to happen. So just instantly forget I've said it. They lose at home to United for something next.

And it's a bit of a game they're expected to win and people think, hang on a minute. And then they don't do what they're supposed to in the League Cup or something in the semi-final. It'll be interesting to see how he responds. But even if that does happen, which seems very unlikely, you'd back him to... But I think that's why he's been hand-picked, Luke, because I think the owners of Liverpool and whoever was involved in the hiring process, often people might think, let's go like for like or something like that. Slott is such a cool, calm head.

that he comes and goes, okay, this is what Klopp built, right enough. Okay, let's just, I'm just going to start plodding along and then we'll pick up the pace. And you think about those early games in the Premier League season, it's,

We were all saying, they're getting results. They've not been brilliant. They've not been great, but they've been all right. They've been fairly solid. And he's built from that. If they hit the ground running when he got there and they were going hell for leather and it continued, you might think, ah, there might be a drop off soon. But the fact is they warmed up and now they're in gear. And I think that bodes very, very well for them. It does. And I think also what bodes well, you're talking about Salah bringing it back full circle and going back to him again.

you know West Ham have been okay recently you know if you look at the players they've got lining up on the left side of the fence you've got Aaron Wan-Bissaka I think he's been one of West Ham's better players this season I think he's been brilliant and he's a brilliant one-on-one defender and Max Kilman who's like an ever-present expensive seasoned

mature senior pros sent her back in the Premier League and they were both torn to pieces by Salah but they couldn't deal with him whatsoever that set up for Kakpo's goal yeah that little bit it's a shame that he couldn't get on the end of it himself and score because I think we'd be talking about that maybe in Dennis Bergkamp type terms you know but what a lovely what a lovely set up it was and we should say by the way that both sides ensured that our latest charity BetBuilder came in with LiveScoreBet

It's four now. It's four. How about that? It's unprecedented from us. 35 quid for Prostate Cancer UK. So we've now raised £335 this season for Prostate Cancer UK. I mean, look, it's a sensational return, given that I don't think we had more than one last year. We've had four already this year. Great shout. Yeah, yeah, indeed. I mean, yeah, with Liverpool, there are some obvious bets to make, you know, with Liverpool.

them winning and maybe Salah getting on the score sheet. I mean, he has scored... Wait, hang on. Hang on. Just leave it there. No, no, no. But tap-ins count. You've got to score the obvious ones. Exactly. You've got to take care of business. Otherwise, you won't win. It's quite as simple as that. I mean, Salah has now scored 20 goals a season for eight seasons in a row. It does make me think

that will we see Rio Ferdinand come, you know, the start of the summer when Liverpool are inevitably in the Champions League final and Salah scores the winning goal? Will we see Rio Ferdinand shouting, Ballon d'Or! Ballon d'Or! when he does? Because I expect that might be a little bit unlikely and might make Rio's position untenable as a Man United great. But I think, you know, it's important to look at the... when assessing Salah's form, the...

important to look at the assists as well because he's right up there with his best returns from a season already. Like absolutely flying. I think a lot of that is...

something that slot's doing with with lewis diaz and cody gackpo i love the way he's deploying them both because diaz is nominally starting on the team sheet in the middle but the two of them are kind of rotating between the kind of center forward position and the left side of it constantly within a game which must be an absolute nightmare to deal with you essentially don't know who you're picking up yeah they've both got so much quality both can play both positions really really well i think obviously that's giving salamore options and they are at

an almost kind of like, it's like a whirlwind in a very literal way, the way they move. What was highlighted on Match of the Day, wasn't it, that they have so many runners going in behind. Yeah. And that is so hard to defend against, which is evidently...

case with West Ham getting five pumped past them. Just a quick honourable mention for Mohamed Kudus by the way who you know West Ham themselves on another day might have scored a couple of goals they were a bit unlucky but 5-0 is ultimately what happened so yeah the one negative point is that they're going to be missing Joe Gomez for a little while which just leaves Virgil van Dijk and Jarrell Kwanzaa as their only specialist centre back so that might be something that starts to strain a little bit but

we'll see won't we probably put Curtis Jones back there if they need to Jim and he'll do fine yeah it's um it's going it's even Kelleher exactly that's the way it's going for them you have to say well their old rivals for the Premier League title Manchester City did finally win a match

match they beat Leicester City 2-0 in Leicester and oh it was unconvincing I thought oh we're on for another one isn't it Pep Guardiola said after the game this will cleanse our souls so you must have watched a different game to me pal because your souls look very dirty still indeed just their second win in their last 10 Premier League games and oh Jamie Vardy had a few chances to ruin the party but he couldn't quite take it Jim

It was frustrating, wasn't it? Because that had a big old... That really felt like there was some narrative about to drop all over that pitch. But it wasn't to be, sadly. But you can see that teams feel emboldened when they play City now. And a lot of it is... I think some of it's psychological. A lot of it is about...

City just leave a lot more space now and all over the pitch really. You can essentially... You have more opportunities to hurt them and Leicester played this like a game they thought they were going to win even when they were 1-0 down and they really looked like they would get back into it and I think...

It's interesting, isn't it? Because teams used to approach them with essentially damage limitation in mind. And they've kind of lost the game before they even step onto the pitch. That has completely gone now. And they don't fear having a go. Teams look at City and think, we've got nothing to lose here. Which is interesting because that's always been the case, isn't it? Nothing's actually changed in terms of what the stakes are. But it's very, very interesting to see a team who are probably going to get relegated think, you know what, we can have this.

Jim, were you pleased that Erling Haaland finally scored? That he was happy? Yeah, I was really worried about him. I'm about to sleep a wink. He was delighted, wasn't he? I mean, perhaps you're more pleased that a Canadian TV broadcaster showed a graphic with his goals scored before and after he told Mikel Arteta to stay humble. So goals scored before that comment, 10 goals in five games. After the comment, three goals in 12 games.

So maybe learning a bit of humility helped him. There was also some video footage I saw of when he missed a penalty against Everton, didn't he? Pickford saved it.

Okay, fine. Sorry. England's glorious Jordan Pickford did an unforgettable save off Erling Haaland from the penalty spot. Marcus, sorry, I should have read the script that was written for me. And before he takes it, Seamus Coleman's right up in his grill going, stay humble, yeah? Stay humble. Really? I didn't see that. It really seems to have affected the whole footballer community. I hope he gets it every game. Yeah.

Yeah, I'm sure he does. I do think from a City perspective, if you were looking at this game thinking, what's the best way we can put this right? I think a goal for Savinho is what you want because he really needs that. He's been good, hasn't he? But he's not been that effective in terms of his output. And a goal for Haaland, obviously, you would want as well because you need to get him back amongst the goals.

and a convincing clean sheet. My take, Marcus, sorry, my take is just that, you know, they're lucky they were playing Leicester because Leicester couldn't make it happen. Leicester had the lion's share of the play when they were 1-0 down and they should have scored. And if they had scored, it would have got super interesting. They shouldn't have lost the game.

Exactly. And the first time I've ever said this, I think, under Pets Man City, is they scored a goal against the run of play. They basically picked off Leicester to go 2-0 up and basically settle the game. And it could have been so different. Vardy was busy. You could tell Vardy was desperate to score. In fact, he was probably trying a bit too hard. I thought Mavadili was really bright as well. And Buonannate was unlucky not to score as well. So there was a kind of...

It was kind of, you know, it could have been a different story, but they never said that. You've got to be balanced. You can't take it away from Man City because they won the game and they were desperate for a win and they would have taken a win anyway, shape or form, but it didn't look convincing at all. And I don't think we've learned...

anything along the lines of oh Man City have turned the corner or whatever I still expect the game against West Ham to be super interesting yes indeed could just be what West Ham need pick me up after that Liverpool loss imagine that coming up after this Cristiano Ronaldo compares Manchester United to an aquarium

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My goodness, what a game it was.

It was a shame for Fulham because actually that last minute equaliser comes about because this a D up gives the ball away right? Yeah it does but I think on the bit of lapse of concentration. Iriola said that if you take the whole game into account he said he felt they shaded it and he may well have a point there I mean Fulham did well to come back into it but I was really impressed with Bournemouth and I was really really eager to see them this season because I mean they're sixths and

Now, depending on what Newcastle do tonight, it is very possible at the halfway stage of the season, they will be sixth and might drop down to seventh. That is... Nobody would have predicted that. We talk about Forest, rightly so, and they're having an incredible season. But so are Bournemouth. Bearing in mind, a bit like...

Nuno, Iriola took over Bournemouth when they were languishing and people thought well they're probably getting relegated and you know gets them into mid-table and now look at them they are serious contenders for European football this season I mean you talk about teams doing something special it is within the realms of possibility they clinched that fifth spot now I'm projecting quite a lot there

You're so giddy. It runs in the family. I mean, I should be giddy about Fulham as well. You know, they're eighth and they're doing well. But I wanted to concentrate a little bit more on Bournemouth because you can see on the pitch...

you talk about Forest they all know their jobs all that kind of stuff but Bournemouth have got that that they've got the pressing down very well they swarm they they have got a bit of quality they run so hard as well they do and I hope for their sake they don't drop off in the second half of the season and I don't think they will but just the way they do and and actually the Fulham are pretty decent at home they usually play on the front foot I know they do against Southampton but

They usually play on the front foot unless it's Arsenal or something like that. Straight away, Bournemouth pinned them back. And I thought, yeah, you can see why Bournemouth are getting results against the sides who are in the lower half or some of the mid-table teams. Really, really impressive. The away end were chanting Iriola's name for most of the game. Well, they did exactly that, Marcus, against Man Utd. They kind of just blew them away with their intensity, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I just...

Eriola, Bournemouth fans won't thank me for saying this, but his stock is very high. And you could imagine at the end of the season, they will have to do very well to keep him there. I would say the same thing about Silva and Fulham, although slightly different situation. But yeah, really impressed with Bournemouth. And yeah, for their sake, long may that continue. Right, tonight, Ipswich face Chelsea, Villa host Bryant and Manchester United host...

host Newcastle United which of course I will be with Jim giving you a ramble reacts after that game so do subscribe to the Football Ramble feed to make sure you don't miss any episodes but in particular that one because surely surely there's going to be something good that happens in that game Manchester United 0 Newcastle 3

Can't wait. Just the three is it Jim? It's not going well at Manchester United it's fair to say. Again pretty much at the halfway point of the season they are 14th and I

If Leicester had just won and Wolves had won, oh, they would have just been a handful of points away from the drop zone. But it's kind of ridiculous though, isn't it? Because you look at that and think, God, how bad can this be? They're in the section of the table where all the other teams are so shit that it actually doesn't move around that much. You know how you look at, we talked about it earlier, how you look at Arsenal and Liverpool and you go, nine points, yeah. No, no, no, that's not happening. Man United, Leicester in 18th, eight points. And you go, eh.

I don't think they're going to be relegated, but I think we should just enjoy what we've got and not ask for more. Exactly. Well, Cristiano Ronaldo has piped up to talk about how he would fix Manchester United if he became owner. At the Dubai Global Soccer Awards, he said, it's like an aquarium. If you have the fish inside and he's sick and you take him out and you fix the problem and you put him back in the aquarium, you will be sick again.

The problem at Manchester United is the same. The problem is not always the coach. It's much more than that. If I will be the club owner, I will make things clear and adjust things that are bad there.

Sounds like management speak, Christiane, and I know you hate that. It sounds like he feels like he's auditioning. It's like you don't get signed to be the club owner. That's why it works. Also, by the way, Christiane, don't go around behaving that. Just a handful of short years ago, you weren't one of the biggest, sickest fish in that aquarium, big boy. Why on earth are they going to bring you back? You were the one stopping Sharky and George from solving all the crimes. That's the problem. That was one of the things people gave 10 hard credit for, was to get rid of him.

Yeah, exactly. One of the legacy things about Ten Hag will be that at least he moved on Cristiano. That's the one of the legacy. And the issue is that, like, clearly because Ratcliffe doesn't believe in spending any money whatsoever at the moment for whatever, for his own reasons or whatever...

He's not even spending money, as I keep saying, on like a PR strategy, which when you're worth 23 billion pounds, isn't that expensive? You need to start doing outreach to the press and to the media to stop these negative stories happening because it's getting worse and worse. Now, I'm not saying that Cristiano Ronaldo is necessarily a part of that because...

He's going to be asked a question about Man United. He's going to say what he wants. In an ordinary world, that wouldn't necessarily matter. He's in Dubai. He's moved on. He's playing in the South. No one really cares. It's no different to, you know, Paul Scholes dripping on Sky Sports, right? But there are endlessly drip-fed bad PR stories coming out, almost like clockwork about Man United every single week. And Ratcliffe is obviously so arrogant, he

He doesn't seem to want to make any kind of change or combat in any way. And that to me shows you that if he's not in control of that, I don't see how he can be in control of the football operations at all. Yeah, Luke, you said recently that you used an analogy about Man United, which was along the lines of saying that if somebody has a brain tumour to fix it, you don't then cut their leg off. I think in this analogy, though...

What they've done is they've had a heart transplant, but they've unfortunately used the heart of an evil old bastard in place of the heart that was there originally. It was the heart before, just the incompetent heart. Indeed, yeah. It was just struggling. Yeah. I mean, it's Ronaldo owning Man United would be fun though, wouldn't it? Maybe Sir Jim will think that's good PR and start putting statues of himself everywhere immediately. Yeah. Get even worse. I'll be up for it.

Yeah, although actually it does remind me a little bit of when Donald Trump first said he might run for president. We were like, yeah, that's funny. It could be the end of us all. Not quite as impactful, Jim. Well, I don't know. The man terrifies me. What makes you think he's evil, Jim? LAUGHTER

You know, just all the things he does and says and things. To give a few more little specifics of what you're saying, Luke, is they plan to inform the club's charitable arm, the Manchester United Foundation, that it will cut a substantial element of their funding from 2025 onwards.

So they do a lot of good work, as you can imagine, the foundation. And yes, they are given money from the club. I think last year it totaled around nearly a million quid. But it's all charitable things. I mean, a club like Manchester United, you expect to give back and do all sorts of things. But for the billionaire owner, and I know it's not always just simply as simple as that, but it is piss poor in the highest possible degree that Jim Ratcliffe is...

how did he get a knighthood do you know what I mean but I like just the words fail me fuck off right I want to move on to another former Manchester United player who's been spouting about Massimo Taibbi even he's getting involved yeah he's got some nerve isn't he I can imagine the current Manchester United player saying okay I'll take it from Scholes I'll take it from Key I'm not taking it from him

He said that Andre and Anna should get out of the club. He said, I think subconsciously the United environment isn't ideal for him. Not subconsciously. I think we're all conscious of it very much so. And when a marriage is showing cracks, it's pointless to continue. I love it. It's a crack. You can fix that. Nah, pointless. Get on with it. Get rid of it.

Forget those vowels. But he's right though, isn't he? He's right because it's the environment, isn't it? Clearly, it's the environment and you can't... There's sick fish everywhere. There's sick fish everywhere. But you know what? It shows you though that a big Premier League move with presumably much more money is not for everybody. Ananda was playing at Inter. He played in a Champions League final. You look at Inter this season, David Cartlidge has got them down for his pick for the Champions League.

OK, in the league they're not doing great, but they're in much better shakes. And he's gone to Man United and he must be going, oh, bloody hell, get me back to the San Siro. I mean, it's just...

Yeah, he's not played. I mean, there have been occasions of this season where Ananias played well, but he's not played well for a while now. But I mean, what do you expect though? He's not suddenly become a bad goalkeeper, as you say. Who can forget my legendary putting up a tent in a hurricane analogy for Ruben Amorim? Exactly. The hurricane's still swirling around. It's not the big red spot on Jupiter, a permanent storm. Yeah, yeah.

I don't know. Anyway, they're playing Newcastle United tonight. Jim and I will be reacting to it. Get involved, everybody. It promises to be a Christmas cracker. Thank you very much for listening to the Football Ramble, part of the ACAST Creative Network. Patron listeners, don't go anywhere as we've an early edition of Ramble Uncut, so stay tuned for that. And if you're not a patron subscriber, sign up to get Ramble Uncut every single Wednesday throughout 2025. Head over to patreon.com forward slash football ramble and do follow us on Instagram.

x blue sky tiktok and instagram at football ramble and subscribe on youtube or wherever you get your pods thanks very much luke thank you thanks very much jimmy thank you and thank you to all of you have a marvellous new year's eve eve the football ramble is a stack production and part of the a-cast creator network

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