Ranks FC - A Football Podcast

Hello Rank Squad! We hope you're all enjoying the festive period and that your midwinter festivals - whichsoever they be - are merry and bright! We didn't want to break our almost 5 year streak of not missing a Wednesday drop, so here's a little Christmas Special that the boys threw together for you to enjoy at some point over the next few days.  We take a look at some of our favourite things acro...

It's time for The Truth! Atalanta are currently top of Serie A as we close in on the halfway point of the season. After winning the Europa League last season, the glass ceiling for the club from Bergamo has been well and truly smashed, but can they go one further this year, beat out some giants of the game and claim their first Scudetto? We examine just how a club from a small city north-east of M...

Hello Rank Squad!  There are certain clubs and players who need something new to set their seasons back on track, and the potential for drastic change is just around the corner with the January Transfer Market opening in under two weeks. We take a look at some of the gambles that clubs could take in the market, and whether they might be good enough to save sagging seasons.  Before that, we examine...

It's time for The Truth! Tottenham Hotspur are an enigma. Sometimes they look unstoppable, like in their 4-0 rout of Manchester City a few weeks ago. At other times they look turgid, slow and far too easy to break down. It's led to a fanbase split on whether the manager is the problem, or just another symptom of something that goes far deeper.  Sam and Dougie discuss why things seems so weirdly up...

Hello Rank Squad! It's time for Champions League Takeaway, your midnight feast of Champions League content - after another breathless week in the UCL that saw thrills, spills, and everything in between.  We start with Wednesday's action, opening with yet another tough night for Pep Guardiola, whose City side were pulled apart by Juventus in transition in the second half, and who now has one win in...

Hello Rank Squad! On today's episode we thought it would be a good time to take a look at the players currently leading the way in the scoring charts across Europe, and cast our thoughts ahead to who looks like they have a good chance of taking home the award at the end of the season.  We skim across some of the players who have set out their stalls early in the summer leagues of Europe, before di...

It's time for The Truth! Aston Villa eased the pressure on themselves with a win against Brentford in midweek, but it doesn't change the fact that November was an incredibly difficult month for the Villans - with their last win before the Bees this Wednesday coming on  October 22nd against Bologna in the Champions League. Many people have pointed to the lack of Douglas Luiz this season as a major...

Hello Rank Squad!  We're returning to one of our staples this week, an old-school ranking that takes on one of our favourite topics—the players who have stepped up their game this season and taken things to a whole new level. We cross Europe to take in a number of ballers who have reached new heights since we kicked off again in August, and hand out due flowers to those most deserving of them.  Ou...

It's time for The Truth! Liverpool have played 19 games this season, winning 17 of them, drawing one and losing just a singular game. They've got the best defence in the Premier League, whilst only Tottenham Hotspur have outscored them going the other way. Top of the Premier League and top of the new Champions League table, it has been an incredible start from Arne Slot's side by anybody's standar...

Hello Rank Squad! It's time for Champions League Takeaway, your midnight feast of Champions League content - after an incredible week in the Champions League that saw Champions crumble, new powers rising, goals galore & some shock results.  We start with Wednesday's action, opening with the breathless end to things in Eindhoven - where the USMNT's Malik Tillman and Ricardo Pepi fired up an incredi...

Hello Rank Squad!  It's that time of year where certain teams start looking towards the January Transfer Window to either bolster their side for a silverware push, or to try and fix gaping holes to resurrect a flailing season. We take a look at both in today's episode, where Dean walks us through some of the things he thinks might take place in the upcoming winter window.  We talk about a number o...

It's time for The Truth! With Ruben Amorim set to take the reins at Manchester United this weekend, Sam and Dougie dig into the future of Marcus Rashford - whether he fits into the new system that Amorim is likely to play at Old Trafford and if he can utilise a fresh start to revitalise a career that feels like it's in limbo right now.  Whilst Rashford's last year or so has been somewhat underwhel...

Hello Rank Squad!  We're delighted to have a new voice on the show today, Mr Eli Quivey, a self-professed 'English bloke in an American body' and a TikTok star, who has recently spent 10 days completing a football trip of a lifetime around England - visiting his beloved Old Trafford, Anfield on a Champions League night, and of course, the home of football, Craven Cottage.  Eli walks us through his...

It's time for The Truth! With Manchester City coming into the international break having lost four games in a row for the first time under Pep Guardiola, Sam Tighe and Dougie Critchley take a deep dive into what exactly is going on in the blue side of Manchester, and if they can recover their sparkling form to win a fifth title in a row. Whilst the injuries to key players - namely Rodri and Kevin...

Hello Rank Squad!  With the final international break of the calendar year now in motion, we thought it would be a good time to take stock of what's happened so far in European club football and rank the clubs who have impressed most over the start to this season. Jack's taken out any clubs he feels are underperforming expectations to narrow the field, and then ordered the seven he feels have star...

It's time for The Truth! With Mikel Arteta starting to get some real heat on social media for Arsenal's recent performances and their lack of goal threat, Sam Tighe and Dougie Critchley take a deep dive into what's making Gunners fans so upset about the way that their team have played recently under their former player.  The biggest question that's being asked is whether Arteta is being too defens...

Hello Rank Squad! It's time for Champions League Takeaway, your midnight feast of Champions League content - after one of the wildest weeks we have seen in the competition in recent times.  We start for a change, with Tuesday's games, opening with Sporting's huge 4-1 win over Manchester City - a parting gift from Ruben Amorim to the Jose Alvalade as City were cut open in transition again. Was it a...

Hello Rank Squad! Something a little bit different this week, a little bit more out of the old school B/R Football Ranks playbook, as we do a live ranking of the world's footballing superstars in the current day and age - based on both their star power, their influence on their teams, and their form so far in this season.  The first debate is what makes a 'superstar' - shirt sales? Goal and assist...

It's time for The Truth! Sam Tighe and Dougie Critchley take a deep dive on a transfer that stunned many observers last summer, when Chelsea spent £115, a British record fee, to sign Moises Caicedo from Brighton & Hove Albion. Caicedo had been one of the Premier League's revelations the season before, but it took a while for him to get his feet under the table at Stamford Bridge.  Many were quick...

Hello Rank Squad! We're dialling in today on the big news that broke this week - Manchester United's sacking of Erik ten Hag and their approach to replace him with Sporting CP's Rúben Amorim - which at the time of recording looks very close to being completed.  First of all, Dean walks us through the ins and outs of how the Manchester United backroom came to the conclusion that they were going to...

It's time for The Truth! Sam Tighe and Dougie Critchley discuss a topic that continues to divide fans across world football - whether Arsenal's leading man Kai Havertz is now an elite striker worthy of being included in the pantheon of the planet's best. Havertz exploded onto the scene for Bayer Leverkusen in 2016, and by 2018 he was making waves at his boyhood club, becoming the youngest player t...

Hello Rank Squad! It's time for Champions League Takeaway, your midnight feast of Champions League content after the main meal was served up on both Tuesday and Wednesday nights by the third round of our new 36-team competition. We start with Tuesday's games, opening with Barcelona's 4-1 dismantling of Bayern Munich that saw them lay recent demons to rest against their most regular scourge, the na...

Hello Rank Squad!  We're just over two months from the January Transfer Window opening, and whilst that seems like some time, it'll roll round fast - so the backroom staff across a number of teams are hard at work in working out what they're going to do when the curtain rises. Today, we're taking a look at the big questions facing a number of Premier League teams in the mid-season shuffle, from do...

It's time for The Truth! Sam Tighe and Dougie Critchley deep dive into Barcelona's famed academy, La Masia, which produced a golden generation during the early 2000's that spawned Gerard Pique, Carles Puyol, Xavi, Andres Iniesta, Lionel Messi, Cesc Fabregas, Sergio Busquets, Jordi Alba, and a whole lot more who contributed to Barca conquering the world.  A fallow period for academy graduates follo...

Hello Rank Squad!  October has crept up on us quietly, and there's less than a fortnight now until we find out who will claim the coveted Ballon d'Or Trophy - the little golden ball that signifies the best player in the world over the previous season.  So, with that in mind, we've put together our own thoughts on who deserves football's most prestigious individual honour. Jack is joined by Dougie...