Ranks FC - A Football Podcast

Hello Rank Squad! It's been a window full of intrigue, but some players have used it to devastating effect, to make the jump from squad players to locked in starters in Qatar, or to inscribe their name firmly in their managers squad lists. We look at a couple of Dutch delights, an England centre-half (no, not that one ), a brilliant Brazilian shape-shifting to good effect, and a Belgian on the ris...

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 discus...

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 ever...

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...

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 h...

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. The...

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...

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,...

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 Berna...

Hello Rank Squad! Welcome to the sixth and final episode of our Big Season Preview Series - as we culminate in the casa di calcio, Italy! With Milan holding the title, Inter snapping at their heels, Juventus hoping for a return to power, there's a major title race to discuss, first and foremost - and then a dive into the chasing pack, last year's third place side Napoli, who have lost a tonne of m...

Preview season continues here on Ranks FC, moving over the Iberian Peninsula from Portugal to Spain! La Liga is back, and there's brilliant battles up and down the table - so we were incredibly lucky to be joined on today's show by the expert analysis of Alan Feehely, editor of the mighty Football España. We pose five questions ahead of the season beginning: Who are now title favourites out of Rea...

Hello Rank Squad! It's time for our fourth episode of our Big Season Preview Series - this time, a slightly shorter one on the Portuguese Primeira, and the major storylines ahead of this season. We take a dive into where all of Portugal's Big Three are ahead of this season - can Porto retain their title? Are Sporting still their closest contenders? Could Benfica, under Roger Schmidt, be back in th...

When everything comes at once, everything drops at once! Moving from England across the Channel, we take to France to look at life in Ligue 1 this season - and we're joined by the expert analysis of Alex Collings, of the Football Per 90 Podcast and a writer for Scouted Football. We pose five questions ahead of the season beginning: Can PSG break their points record (on back of a lot of hype and sm...

Hello Rank Squad! The summer has passed, the international tournaments have been concluded, and the return of domestic league action is just round the corner, so it's time for the second of our Season Preview series - and it's a big one, because the Premier League is back! We start at the bottom of the table, with the battle for survival taking place there; and end with the thrill of the title rac...

It's all systems go this week as we head into full preview mode! First up, the Bundesliga! We're joined by Jon Mackenzie of the mighty Tifo Football to work our way through how German football's top tier looks before the season opens. We talk a number of different categories - the Top Four, the European Battles, the teams looking to find their way back to European paradise, the middle-of-the-roade...

Hello Rank Squad! We've seen some massive movers and shakers in the market this window, but as we settle in the 'deep breath before the plunge' with less than two weeks left until we see the return of many of Europe's top leagues, we take a moment to check on the players who are still where they started the summer, and might well be available if the right option came up. We rank five categories -...

Hello Rank Squad! With pre-season firmly in full swing and the transfer merry-go-round showing no signs of stopping, we wanted to take a look at some of the big question marks ahead of the new season getting underway. We start at Manchester United, where the addition of Lisandro Martinez at CB has posed a dilemma - will it be club captain Harry Maguire or Champions League legend Raphael Varane who...

Dean Jones is back, Rank Squad! And on that note, we wanted to give you a transfer ranking to match - so we did. We talked five Premier League teams who have serious work to do before the season begins, if they're to match expectations. From Wolverhampton Wanderers to Everton; Manchester United to Chelsea; and the new enigma that is Newcastle United - we considered where they are right now and wha...

Pre-season has begun, and with it comes a new rake of questions about how you're going to set up your FPL team for the upcoming season, so we're here to help you mix it with the best of the best (and send your friends to the shadow realm). We've brought in one of our good friends, Gianni Butticè , Official FPL panellist and all-round good egg, to help you work out the finer details in how to get y...

We're edging closer to the new season and there are plenty of clubs with a lot of work to do over the course of the next month. We look at five new managers who have it all to do in terms of implementing new philosophies and sorting out their new charges. From Vincent Kompany at Burnley to Alfred Schreuder at Ajax; Paulo Fonseca at Lille to Christophe Galtier at PSG; and a returning legend at Athl...

It's time to start making some bold predictions ahead of next season, and so we brought in the best man for the job - football coach, agent and Twitter extraordinaire Harry Brooks, making his triumphant third Ranks appearance - to give some thoughts ahead of next season. We talk about Arsenal's profile of signings, a potential clash of personalities at Erik ten Hag's Manchester United, and Liverpo...

So, the transfer window is open, and nobody has hung around wasting any time! We take a look at the five most expensive deals done so far and give them a thorough analysis, before grading each on how we see them before a ball has been kicked for their new teams. So we talk Brenden Aaronsen to Leeds United, Karim Adeyemi to Borussia Dortmund, Erling Haaland to Manchester City, Darwin Núñez to Liver...

What’s up Rank Squad! Jack’s away enjoying some well-earned rest, so Dean and Sam tackle this week’s pod as a duo—and it’s a big ‘un! It’s the long-promised, much-talked-up REBUILDS episode, where we take a look at 5 clubs in dire need of some help and try to come to their assistance. There’s Benfica, who are facing up to a future without Darwin Núñez—but with Roger Schmidt, pressing mastermind. T...

Hello Rank Squad! The domestic season is pretty much all done in Europe, and we're here to take a look back. Originally this was supposed to be a Ballon d'Or ranking, but Karim Benzema has rendered that a little bit pointless, so we're mixing it up. We talk about the big man, of course, who powered Real Madrid to a La Liga & Champions League double, but also his contemporaries. From KDB's immense...

As the last (and biggest) annual game of the European football calendar comes hurtling towards us once again, it's one which we've seen before - a repeat of 2018's final between Liverpool and Real Madrid - and a complete reworking of the 1981 Final, which was held at the Parc de Princes between these two sides - it's funny how history can repeat itself! It’s time to turn our eyes to Paris and look...