Sacking or Saving Europe's Under-Fire Managers (v5)

Messi, Ronaldo, Neymar, Mbappé, De Bruyne, Lukaku, Benzema, Lewandowski, Oblak, Salah. The list goes on forever - star players who grace the Champions League, who we look to for entertainment every time the Gazprom returns for a midweek slot.But what about those ones that slip under the radar in the light of such radiant brilliance? The next generation playing for clubs who are outsiders, the quiet men in the middle of things, those outside of Europe's big five leagues? Sam walks us through five of the best talents in this season's Champions League who might just have ghosted off your radar, and why you should be looking to learn more.There's also Things We Love, which includes a Mo Salah love-in and a dissection of Osasuna's fast start to La Liga's season; whilst Melon in the Week comes from Serie A and the Gibberish Rankings are a list of things Sam struggles to find most in his own house. It's Ranks! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices And remember, if you’d like more from the Rank Squad, including extra podcasts every Monday and Friday (including our weekly Postbox taking a look at the whole weekend of football) and access to our brilliant Discord community, then why not join us here on Patreon? Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

20 Okt 202157min

Top-tier club football returns this weekend, and with it, a glut of incredible games and teams to keep an eye on across the continent! To help us pick the most watchable teams so far this season, we enlisted the help of our friend Dougie Critchley, who some of you will know from his work on Football Daily and Euro Football Daily.We talked through some of the best sides on the continent, including some rampant Total Football proponents, a Bundesliga David and Goliath, and a pair of Scudetto challengers - before discussing a bit more why La Liga has struggled to ignite, and a couple of honourable mentions in France.Before that, Sam talks us through the heartwarming story of the Hernandez brothers playing together for France and winning an international trophy; and afterwards Dean returns to the Pod in live form, ranking the best bits from his time in America and dropping a (different football) Melon of the Week.It's Ranks! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices And remember, if you’d like more from the Rank Squad, including extra podcasts every Monday and Friday (including our weekly Postbox taking a look at the whole weekend of football) and access to our brilliant Discord community, then why not join us here on Patreon? Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

13 Okt 20211h 15min

The Championship, League 1 and League 2 are hotbeds of young talent in England. Not only have we seen talent in promoted sides thrive, but transfers up for the likes of Michail Antonio, Ollie Watkins, Jarrod Bowen, James Maddison, Jay Rodriguez, Joe Gomez, John Stones, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Tim Cahill, Aaron Ramsey and Gareth Bale were all success stories, so there's some pretty good historical basis for players making the jump.So we're making this one a staple, and bringing back our old friend Ali Maxwell from Not the Top 20 Podcast and The Athletic's Football Tactics Podcast to talk to us about some of the most exciting talents in the EFL who we might well be seeing on the biggest stages in football at some point in the near future.We start with a look back at Ali's calls from last year, which included Rico Henry, Josh Da Silva and Michael Olise - before heading on to some of the names from this campaign - taking a look at Blackburn's Ben Brereton Diaz, Coventry City's Callum O'Hare, Stoke City's Harry Souttar, Luton Town's Elijah Adebayo and MK Dons' Matt O'Riley and what stage each of them are currently at.As ever, there's time for Things We Love, where Sam talks João Félix's masterclass against Barcelona at the weekend, and Jack discusses a weekend of shock results across Europe and the reverberations they could cause. Dean phones in a Melon of the Week and we finish with a Gibberish that could get Sam in some trouble at home. It's Ranks! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices And remember, if you’d like more from the Rank Squad, including extra podcasts every Monday and Friday (including our weekly Postbox taking a look at the whole weekend of football) and access to our brilliant Discord community, then why not join us here on Patreon? Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

6 Okt 20211h 18min

We're delighted to welcome the first of our special guests in Dean's absence with Jack and Sam being joined by Stephen Ganavas of Scouted Football to talk through some of the hidden gems in the Golden Boy shortlist. Having talked about the best teenagers in the world a few weeks back, Stephen ranked a few names in here less up in lights, but who you still really need to know - Mohamed-Ali Cho of Angers, Yeremy Pino of Villarreal, Karim Adeyemi of Salzburg, Illya Zabarnyi of Dynamo Kyiv and Josep Gvardiol of RB Leipzig.There was time for Things We Love too, where Sam discussed a particular touch from Emile Smith-Rowe in Sunday's North London Derby, and Jack gushed about the performance of Nicolo Barella in Inter's 2-2 draw with Atalanta at the weekend.Dean phoned in a Melon of the Week from California, and the Gibberish Rankings focused on the TV shows that are next on Sam's radar. It's Ranks! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices And remember, if you’d like more from the Rank Squad, including extra podcasts every Monday and Friday (including our weekly Postbox taking a look at the whole weekend of football) and access to our brilliant Discord community, then why not join us here on Patreon? Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

29 Sep 20211h 6min

There's always a few players who explode into life each season to make big waves for clubs that we didn't see coming. Whether it's comebacks or breakthroughs, across Europe and beyond, previously fringe options suddenly become crucial elements for a new manager or find themselves in the plans of an old one. We look at five of the most surprising options to have emerged this season so far.There's also, of course, Things We Love, which this week starts with a love letter to Ronald Araujo, and then descends into the Koeman in or out discourse. If you want a full breakdown of our thoughts on the next Barcelona manager, we've done a YouTube special here! We chat too about Danny Drinkwater's renaissance at Reading, and Napoli's perfect start to the Serie A season which included a training ground special on Monday night.Melon of the Week goes to a certain goalkeeper from the Europa League, although there's a nice fan-based counterpoint to that one; and Sam picks his favourite Pringles flavours in the Gibberish. It's Ranks! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices And remember, if you’d like more from the Rank Squad, including extra podcasts every Monday and Friday (including our weekly Postbox taking a look at the whole weekend of football) and access to our brilliant Discord community, then why not join us here on Patreon? Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

22 Sep 20211h 8min

Teenagers are fleeting. It feels like only yesterday that we were talking about Kylian Mbappé, Jadon Sancho and Erling Braut Haaland - but they're all into their 20's now and ineligible for consideration. So we take an early look at the brightest stars of the new generation - off the back of one of our Ultras asking if Jamal Musiala was one of the best teenagers in the world. He's in some elite company - Ansu Fati, Pedri, Florian Wirtz, Jude Bellingham, Nuno Mendes, Mason Greenwood, Gio Reyna, Eduardo Camavinga, Ryan Gravenberch - and the list goes on! Sam does his best to put them in the order of how they stack up against each other right now. There's also time for Things We Love - where Dean talks CR7's debut, Sam discusses seeing players live in the flesh again and Jack waxes lyrical on how good Roma-Sassuolo and Serie A as a whole were this weekend. As ever, there's a Melon of the Week, and Dean talks his personal problems in the Gibberish Rankings. It's Ranks!If you'd like to vote for us in the FCA Awards, we're in the International category for Best Club Content Creator - we'd really appreciate it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices And remember, if you’d like more from the Rank Squad, including extra podcasts every Monday and Friday (including our weekly Postbox taking a look at the whole weekend of football) and access to our brilliant Discord community, then why not join us here on Patreon? Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

15 Sep 202158min

The transfer window has closed and we've had a couple of games in each league, so whilst pre-season predictions are fun, this feels like a good time to lock our selections in for the season - so it's time for a new game on Ranks. Welcome to 5x5. The concept is simple - we each pick how we think the top five in England, Spain, Italy, Germany and France are going to look when the curtain falls in May.We work through some brilliant backing of those pre-season picks, some drastic changes courtesy of the end of the transfer window, and some absolutely outrageous calls, mostly from Jack, where heart has clearly taken precedence over head.And of course, there's a Melon of the Week, a Gibberish Ranking and the poems are back to kick things off. It's Ranks!If you'd like to vote for us in the FCA Awards, we're in the International category for Best Club Content Creator - we'd really appreciate it! And of course, if you want more from us, you can join the Rank Squad Ultras on Patreon! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices And remember, if you’d like more from the Rank Squad, including extra podcasts every Monday and Friday (including our weekly Postbox taking a look at the whole weekend of football) and access to our brilliant Discord community, then why not join us here on Patreon? Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

8 Sep 20211h 8min

Well, that was quite something, hey? A window like no other, that saw Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Jack Grealish, Antoine Griezmann, Sergio Ramos, Raphael Varane, Gigi Donnarumma, Romelu Lukaku, Jadon Sancho, Achraf Hakimi and David Alaba all on the move. Oh, and Kylian Mbappé and Harry Kane eventually stay put after weeks and months of speculation. We're here to make sense of it, ranking the best five transfers across the window! We discuss some of the most valuable deals across the course of this summer, and why they're such important pickups for their respective new clubs. There's also time for us to discuss the Things We Love, which includes some bits on the biggest non-deals this summer and also some Narrative FC love; whilst Melon of the Week comes from Spain and Sam's Gibberish Rankings are about the very strange week he's had. It's Ranks! If you want more from us, with two extra episodes and a newsletter a week, and access to our Discord server, why not come join the Ultras on Patreon? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices And remember, if you’d like more from the Rank Squad, including extra podcasts every Monday and Friday (including our weekly Postbox taking a look at the whole weekend of football) and access to our brilliant Discord community, then why not join us here on Patreon? Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

1 Sep 20211h 2min