Ranks FC - A Football Podcast

We're careering towards the end of the season, so we thought we'd shine a little light on the players who have exploded into the public consciousness and into our hearts in the 2020/21 season. From the Premier League to the Bundesliga to La Liga, we've experienced some of the most amazing stories as unknown quantities have brought the limelight streaming down on themselves with incredible performa...

It's that time of year again, where the debate begins to rage about who the Premier League's best player has been over the course of the last eight months. It's never easy, but with no obvious front-runner this year, we thought it was a good time to explore just who should be getting the nod for the domestic individual award that causes more debate than any other. We discuss a crop of City's best,...

It's an all-Basque affair in the Copa del Rey final as Athletic Club take on Real Sociedad for the trophy this weekend. They've only had to wait a year! In this special episode, made in partnership with New Balance Football, we delve into a gargantuan game that has more on the line than silverware - this Euskal Derbia is about local bragging rights, regional pride, and a first Copa del Rey since t...

Draws done, brackets done, and the roads to Istanbul and Gdańsk respectively are paved for Europe's elite. So it's time to take a look closer at how these might play out. First up, the Champions League, where Sam ranks Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain, Manchester City, Borussia Dortmund, Real Madrid, Liverpool, Porto and Chelsea on the likelihood of them holding ol' Big Ears to the sky on a balm...

It's the third instalment of March's InterviewSZN on Ranks FC as we welcome Hugo Scheckter to the pod to pull back the curtain on what life is like in the world of Player Care - in his words, "anything that's not on-the-pitch or medical!" Hugo was Player Care Manager at Southampton and West Ham United in the Premier League, as well as IndyEleven in the US, and explained to us the ins-and-outs of a...

March InterviewSZN continues on Ranks FC, as we welcome FA intermediary and Head of Football at Distinct Agency, Sonny Coleman, to the pod to give us an insight into the world of being a football agent. We discuss his route into this side of the game, the day-to-day of what as entails, how the agency world is changing, and his engagement with the players he represents, as well as Sonny's roots in...

There's a familiar voice in the Ranks FC studio this week, and not because it's a returning guest, but because it's the Voice of FIFA, Bundesliga Broadcast Behemoth, and one of the finest commentators to ever grace the microphone, Mr. Derek Rae, who joins the Rank Squad to talk all things commentary. We start off with Derek's own background and how he started life behind the mic, before taking a w...

On Monday, the UK announced its roadmap towards a world without lockdowns, a world which screams to us - full stadiums and football as we love it. It's not quite a global movement yet, but a glut of vaccines means that wherever you are, it feels like the moment is coming where we can look to an open sky once more. Never again will we take a trip to a new ground or to see the players we love, for g...

You didn't think we were going to miss this opportunity, did you? The return of the Champions League means the return of the Champions League's cooler little brother - because the Europa League, like the UEFA Cup before it, is where the cool kids hang out. Europe's most exciting club competition, back with a Round of 32 that contains some explosive match-ups and some players to watch. We take a lo...

That time of year is getting closer, Rank Squad. Oh yes, it's time for European nights, under the lights - as next week the Champions League takes flight again for its knockout stages. It might be a tad premature, but who's asking - we're taking a deep dive on the Round of 16. From the teams who are in the best form, to the best chances of an upset, to the most entertaining fixtures - we've got th...

This January might have seen deals more scarce than usual, but there was still plenty going on as the transfer window raged across the first month of 2021. We're here to pick up what was hot (and a little of what was not) as Sam ranks the best five deals that have happened in the month just gone. With Liverpool finally signing some centre-back cover (for one of which we sought expert advice from o...

He's back, ladies and gentlemen! The Rank Squad were joined once again by Harry Brooks, head coach at Round World Royals, to discuss five more players who could do with a change of position or system to up their game. This time it's Tanguy Ndombele, Jadon Sancho, Gareth Bale, Mo Salah and Marco Asensio in the spotlight, as we move them around to find their sweet spot. There's also a discussion, fu...

Across Europe we're seeing a season where the title races are more open than ever before - in England five points separate the top six, in Italy there's at least four sides with a shot at the Scudetto, in France top spot is currently decided on goal difference, in Spain it's a new challenger sitting pretty at the summit, and in Germany the recent wobble from the Champions has contenders getting ex...

As we look forward to a new calendar year stuffed with football, it's worth looking back at 2020, and the Rank Squad teamed up with EA Sports FIFA 21 to take a look at the contenders for 2020's pantheon - a year unlike any other. We talk some of the biggest names from across Europe, including a couple from Champions of the Continent, Bayern Munich, from the Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, Ligue...

Happy New Year, Rank Squad! It's our first episode of 2021and we thought it was time to wheel out a classic (with a twist) and take a look at some predictions for 2021. Dean bravely took on the mantle that Sam vacated to look ahead to the year to come, making predictions based on a big transfer saga that's been rumbling on for a while between Dortmund and United, his attendance at games, Cristiano...

Happy Holidays Rank Squad, and welcome to the last episode of 2020. With this year one to forget in many ways, we wanted to throw things forward to January and the first Dean Jones ranking of the Ranks FC era! We take a look at some of the most unconventional rumours coming out of the camp for the transfer window - from former Arsenal widemen being linked to Inter Milan, to Arsenal actually thinki...

SAMta Claus is...not coming to town, because he's in tier 4, but if he weren't, he'd come to your town and give out some presents! We take a look at some of the things that Europe's most in-need clubs are after - players, managers, Presidents, the lot. With his elves in tow, Santa leaves some gifts under the tree for the clubs that need them most. Then it's on to the festivities, as we name five f...

The Champions League Last 16 is set and the draw is done, which leaves us salivating at the prospect of eight blistering ties to come in the New Year. Still, with the matchups now set, it felt like a good time to rank the contenders left in Europe's pre-eminent club competition, and so we set Sam to work building a list. We take a look at Bayern, Leipzig, Dortmund, Gladbach, Real Madrid, Atleti, B...

On Monday, before United's game against Leipzig, Paul Pogba's agent Mino Raiola came out to say that "I can say it’s over for Paul Pogba at Manchester United." Given Pogba had scored in United's game against West Ham at the weekend, and was about to play in a do-or-die game for United in the Champions League, it's worth pointing out that the timing could have been better. And so it proved, with th...

In the first interview of the Ranks FC Era, we meet a man whose star is on the rise at Bayern Munich and a key part of the US Golden Generation coming through, 20-year-old centre-back Chris Richards. It's been a huge year for Chris - he made his first Bayern appearance in June, his first Bayern league start in October, earned his first US senior cap in November and made his first Champions League...

There was only one place we could start today - in tribute to a genuine legend in this game we love. An icon. A behemoth. The one and only Diego Armando Marandona. There will, simply put, never be another like him and the football world is a darker place without his presence. That said, he was a football man until his last breath, and the game, beset as it is by grief, must go on. The Champions Le...

Welcome to 2025, where the halcyon days of Ronaldo and Messi are long consigned to the past and a new battle rages to be the world's best. There are many contenders, but who tops the award they all want more than any other - Sam Tighe's Player Rankings. We take a look at some of the young superstars who are well on their way to the top of the game and will be the pantheon of the elite in the futur...

Hello Rank Squad, here's a special Cyber Week treat for you - this week, we're opening up our Patreon offering to everyone, to show you what you'd be getting if you took the plunge and became Ultras. The first of two extra episodes is here - our Monday Postbox, where we talk through the weekend's action and answer as many questions as we possibly can. Opening up in the Premier League, we field som...

The Championship is a wild world, and it's formed some of our most loved stars of the Premier League and beyond. Nobody encapsulates that more than current PL Poster Boy Jack Grealish, who spent three explosive years setting the Championship alight before returning to take the top flight by storm. It's not just him though - right now Ollie Watkins, Patrick Bamford, Jarrod Bowen and loads more are...

It's time for our first guest on Ranks FC and who better than our old friend Jimmy Conrad, USMNT legend and modern media mogul, who joins us to look at the most shocking things that have happened this season, from Liverpool to Messi to VAR and beyond, we cover it all, from the Champions League to the Gala Dinners that may or may not be happening this winter. On top of that, Dean leads some chat ab...