Champions League Takeaway: Chelsea's Young Guns Fire, Liverpool Bite Back, Spurs Struggle & Real Madrid Eke It

It's under two months to the World Cup, but which positions for which teams are giving their managers headaches? We discuss the biggest logjam positions in the international realm, from England's right-backs to Spain's left-backs, and from the glut of glorious attacking players for both Argentina & Brazil, to France's ridiculous depth at centre-back.There's Things We Love as well, where we discuss Ethan Nwaneri's emergence as the youngest player in English top-flight history; Iñaki and Nico Williams' goalscoring heroics for Athletic Club and their international call-ups for separate nations; and Granada's coming to fore as Spanish Segunda football continues through the international break.And finally, we discuss an absolute madhouse of a weekend in terms of red cards and melons - in both the Melon of the Week and the extended Gibberish Rankings. 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.

21 Sep 202256min

Teenagers are fleeting - one minute past their 20th birthday, and they're gone into the big wide world of everyday footballers - so we have to give them their due whilst we can. And it seems only yesterday that we were punctuating this list with Ryan Gravenberch, Nuno Mendes - and even Kylian Mbappé and Erling Haaland. But the seasons flow, players grow and new wonderkids wind up on the block every single season, so it's time to put them in order for 2022. We talk a host of names, from a Barcelona cohort including Ansu Fati, Gavi and reigning title-holder Pedri, Eduardo Camavinga, Borussia Dortmund's latest gems off the production line, Harvey Elliott (how is he still elegible?!), Jamal Musiala, Florian Wirtz and many more. Sam also chucks in a big prediction for this season for each of his top five.Things We Love focuses on Graham Potter's rise to the top table of European football management, a rake of late moments for the big guns in Serie A, and Sporting's recovery after a tough start to the season - with some love for some names who were maybe in danger of slipping into unfulfilled promise territory. There's a Melon of the Week out of Turin (or multiple, being frank) and we do a quick draft to select our teams that we'll focus on for the upcoming 2022 World Cup.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.

14 Sep 20221h 1min

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 - which can only mean it's 5x5 time. The concept is simple - we each pick how we think the top five in England, France, Italy, Germany and Spain are going to look when the curtain falls in May.We look at what happened last time out, before working through our selections, our thoughts on how a shedload of sides have started their campaigns, and some more rogue calls from Jack, where heart continues to take precedence over head.There's a quick Things We Love - where Sam talks his first dive into management, and Jack talks a fairy story out of Exeter. There's also a Melon of the Week, a Gibberish Ranking and the poems are back to kick things off. It's Ranks!To pick up our special deal with NordVPN, head to https://nordvpn.com/ranksfc to get a free month and a load off a 2-year-subscription.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.

7 Sep 20221h 14min

Hello Rank Squad! Welcome to our third and final episode of this week, this time looking back at the transfer window as a whole and working out where we think the best deals, steals and keels have been found. Jack and Sam split the rankings into four parts - best big-money deal (over £40m), best low-cost deal (under £15m), best loan deal and, controversially, the deals where we think clubs might have dropped a bit of a clanger. 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.

2 Sep 202255min

Hello Rank Squad! Deadline Day will soon be upon us, and we've set DJ to work in order to line up TEN of the biggest stories and sagas that will look to go right to the wire this summer. From the world's biggest players to free agents looking for a new home, title contenders and relegation battlers, we've covered loads of deals, rumours and late dramas that may well go down to the final hours. There's also Things We Love, which this week entails the off between Richarlison and Brennan Johnson at the City Ground on Sunday, as well as Ander Herrera's homecoming to Athletic Club. And there's a VERY contentious Melon of the Week from Toxic Dean, as well as Sam's Gibberish, which truly has some questionable takes also. It's Ranks!To pick up our special deal with NordVPN, head to https://nordvpn.com/ranksfc to get a free month and a load off a 2-year-subscription. 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.

31 Aug 20221h 13min

Hello Ultras!Happy Bank Holiday to those who are enjoying it! And to those who aren’t: Perhaps this podcast will help you through the day.We covered all of Europe and beyond (as usual), with a heavy dose of transfers included too as we hurtle toward the end of the window.Here’s everything we talked about! Enjoy the week ahead!PREMIER LEAGUE—Liverpool scored 9 and Salah did…nothing? + Midfield transfer talk—Man City’s Mentality Monsters—Arsenal grinding through, Ødegaard brilliance + Saliba’s World Cup hopes—Chelsea finally show some character—United creeping forward + Antony/Gakpo chat—Are Spurs good, or?ON THE CONTINENT—The Raphinha/Lewandowski combo, Koundé debut—Can Aspas make Spain’s World Cup squad?—Edinson Cavani’s next adventure—Juventus vs. Roma was surprisingly fun—Who is the best in Serie A?—Dortmund is bad for your health—Marseille look a lot of fun, Nice look the opposite—Yann Sommer’s record-breaking day—What the hell, Porto?OTHER—Linfield & Atlético Tucumán stories—CL, UEL & UECL draw storylines—Nandos sauce recipeThat’s all for this week!If you've enjoyed this and you'd like to join our Ultras community for more of the same, come see us at patreon.com/ranksfc! 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 Aug 20221h 24min

Hello Rank Squad!It's creeping towards the end of the transfer window and certain teams are still desperately in need of reinforcements - as we prepare for things to get stressful over the next week. We take a peek behind the curtains at Goodison Park, Stamford Bridge, the King Power and Old Trafford to analyse the players that need to come and go before the window slams shut if Everton, Chelsea, Leicester City and Manchester United are to live up to expectations this season.Things We Love takes a look at Casemiro's tearful but celebratory departure from Real Madrid and discusses why he's an excellent addition for United; and there's also an outpouring of love for new Napoli starboy Kvicha Kvaratskhelia and some big respect put on Luciano Spalletti's shirt collection.Melon of the Week takes us into the Portuguese Second Tier, and the Gibberish makes some semblance of sense this time out - with Sam ranking the three statistical measures used in football that he thinks are a bit of a nonsense. It's Ranks!To pick up our special deal with NordVPN, head to https://nordvpn.com/ranksfc to get a free month and a load off a 2-year-subscription. 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.

24 Aug 20221h 10min

Hello Rank Squad!We're back to normal programming after the madness of Preview season, and it's nice to be back on home ground. With that in mind, we return to a staple of the Ranks Calendar - the biannual visit around the grounds to see which players are in real need of a move with just two weeks of the transfer window left.We start in Wolverhampton, with a mercurial winger; travel to the Bernabeu in Madrid, the Johan Cruyff Arena in Amsterdam and the Westfalenstadion in Dortmund, before ending our journey back in West London at Stamford Bridge - to name five players in need of new homes.There's also Things We Love, which talks about boyhood fans appearing at Manchester City, Arsenal's newly-formed team that fans can finally hail, and discuss the chaotic opening of the Calcio season in Serie A. There's a familiar face returning in Melon of the Week, and Sam takes tactical lessons from his cats in the Gibberish Rankings.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.

17 Aug 20221h 3min