The Daily Football Briefing

Thomas Tuchel is set to become the new manager of England. The news broke on Tuesday night, but Jack Pitt-Brooke pounced into action, he joins us to explain the thinking.  There was some Nations League football too. Pol Ballus watched Spain beat Serbia,while I greatly enjoyed another battling performance from Scotland and their fans’ merciless treatment of Cristiano Ronaldo. Plus, in words that sp...

It was a good night for Europe’s traditional powers. Germany beat the Netherlands in a match of few chances, France beat Belgium in the game I really should have been watching and Italy thrashed Israel in the game James Horncastle was watching. Elsewhere, why have Nigeria forfeited their game against Libya? And why is FIFPro, the footballers’ union, launching a legal complaint against FIFA? You’ll...

After Thursday’s appalling defeat at home to Greece, interim England boss Lee Carsley needed to get his side back on track. It wasn’t always pretty, but that’s exactly what they did. Goals from Jack Grealish, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Declan Rice put England back in contention for promotion out of the B Groups.  In the A Groups, Portugal are flying, they beat Poland. We’ve got the state of play a...

Well…that wasn’t very good, was it? England had made a steady start to life under Lee Carlsey, but our man at Wembley Jack Pitt-Brooke called them ‘abysmal’ as they crashed to a 1-2 defeat.  Belgium boss Domenico Tedesco could have been in trouble too, his side were being played off the park by Italy until Lorenzo Pellegrini was sent off and so the Belgians came back from 0-2 down to draw 2-2.  Au...

Jurgen Klopp is coming back to football, but not as a manager. He’s going to be the Global Head of Soccer at Red Bull. So what does that actually mean? Simon Hughes joins us to discuss further.  It was an exciting night in the UEFA Women’s Champions League where Arsenal were taken apart in the second half by Bayern Munich, they were beaten 5-2. No such issues for Manchester City though, they were...

Manchester City’s director of football Txiki Begiristain is set to leave the club at the end of the season, it’s going to be a huge loss for the club, but what does it mean for Pep Guardiola? And Chelsea got off to a very decent start in the UEFA Women’s Champions League, they beat Real Madrid 3-2 at Stamford Bridge and Megan Feringa was there for us. Plus, Tottenham assistant coach Ryan Mason cou...

A battle, not the battle, between Manchester City and the Premier League has ended with a written verdict and both sides have moved quickly to claim victory. But who’s right? And what does it mean? Thank heavens that Jacob Whitehead is here to explain it.  There’s not very much football on for the next few days, but there is the Women’s Champions League. Who’s playing? What does it all mean? Charl...

Right, lap this up because it’s international week now and we all know what that means. We’ve got an extended-by-popular-demand FIFTEEN minute episode to wrap up the weekend’s football because there’s so much drama and I always end up having to read at x1.5 speed to fit it all in. We had Laurie Whitwell watching Manchester United’s draw at Aston Villa, we had Liam Twomey watching Chelsea drop poin...

Where do you even start with Manchester United? Two nil up, three two down and then Harry Maguire scores possibly the most important header of Erik Ten Hag’s career. Is it a good result or a bad result? Does this intensify the pressure or relieve it? Does anyone know anymore? Charlotte Harpur was in Porto, she joins us to explain what just happened.  By contrast, Spurs had a far easier night and J...

Was this the second greatest night in Aston Villa’s history? And also the second greatest victory over Bayern Munich? Has any manager had as much of an impact on one club in just two years as Unai Emery?  And what on earth happened to Real Madrid? How did they manage to lose to Lille? Mind you, RB Leipzig will be asking exactly the same thing after they let a 2-1 lead slip against a ten man Juvent...

The second week of the new look Champions League started with a bang; Arsenal beat PSG 2-0 at The Emirates and you can actually hear Amy Lawrence grinning as she reports into us.  It was a tough night for Celtic as they were taken to the cleaners by Borussia Dortmund, but at least they weren’t the only team to get a thrashing. Man City crushed Slovan Bratislava, Barcelona smacked down the Young Bo...

Manchester United resisted the temptation to immediately dismiss Erik Ten Hag after Sunday’s humiliation, but he’s heading into an extremely tough week and you wonder how much longer he can survive. Laurie Whitwell is our man on the ground at Old Trafford, he joins us with an update.   It was a tough night for Southampton boss Russell Martin. His team were taken apart in a brutal first half away a...

It’s been another miserable weekend for Manchester United. Yes, they were reduced to ten men in the first half, but you sensed they’d lost the game long before then. They were fortunate that Spurs only scored three. Charlotte Harpur was there for us.  Barcelona’s 100% record has gone, they were beaten 4-2 by Osasuna. How? Dermot Corrigan joins us to explain exactly what happened back there. And th...

You had to feel for Ange Postecoglou. Seven minutes into a must win Europa League opener and Radu Drăgușin gets himself sent off. If he’d lost this, the pressure would really have made itself known. But against all odds and expectations, Spurs prevailed. And in style. Jack Pitt-Brooke was there. Eventually. After a two hour walk in the rain.  Meanwhile, flu-ravaged Producer Lucy was watching Serie...

Manchester United dropped two points on their first night in UEFA’s giant new Europa League, they were leading against Twente right up until the moment they weren’t…United have only beaten Fulham, Southampton and Barnsley this season, they just don’t seem to be improving. Liverpool and Arsenal are all right though. The Red breezed past struggling West Ham at Anfield and a team full of teenagers di...

After all the criticism over the summer, Chelsea are having a lovely time right now. Sure, Barrow are a League Two side (top of League Two though…) but a 5-0 win will boost the confidence of all concerned. They go through to the next round along with Man City, Aston Villa and Leicester.  Real Madrid spent 85 minutes making their critics eat their words and then switched off, allowing Alaves to com...

It is the bleakest of news for Manchester City fans. Rodri, the man who holds their shape together, the man they really miss when he’s out, could be gone for the whole season with a knee injury. Sam Lee is here to tell us just how bad this could be for City. And how good it could be for everyone else… City aren’t the only elite team to have been rocked by injury news. Barcelona’s Marc Ter Stegen i...

You’ll be hearing and reading about City 2-2 Arsenal for some time this week. 20 players were camped in City’s final third for all of the second half, Arsenal were a stones throw from victory - well Stones’ head in the end.  We have your full round up from the rest of the Premier League, get your pen out, there’s loads of stats for you to take note. In Europe Milan defeated Inter for the first tim...

There was once a time when Arsenal fans didn’t like David Raya. Didn’t like that he’d taken the number one jersey. Didn’t think he was one of the top goalkeepers. Well, Thursday night’s double save against Atalanta has surely by now changed everyone’s mind. Amy Lawrence was watching Arsenal come away with a hard earned point in Bergamo. In the night’s other matches, Barcelona conspired to beat the...

It wasn’t quite as rip roaring a night in the Champions League as we had on Tuesday but still plenty to ponder after night two.  Such as, how Inter were able to quell Man City. Why PSG REALLY needed a win against Girona. And why we all need to go to Celtic Park for a Champions League match.  Spurs were very nearly the headline as they needed an extremely late comeback to beat, um, Coventry in the...

Was it goals you wanted? Well, you’ve come to the right place. The Champions League had plenty of them last night. We have your full round up from the day’s action including Liverpool’s win over Milan, Real Madrid’s sketchy result against Stuttgart and Villa’s start to life in the biggest league of them all.  Elsewhere, players are starting to make noises about strikes due to the amount of games t...

Monday began a significant week in the world of football. Yes the Champions League is back, we’ll get to that. But first it was all about Manchester City, whose trial against the Premier League for alleged spending breaches got under way. Matt Slater is on hand to tell us what we should and should not expect.  We also had football on Monday in the form of League One’s finest: Tom Brady’s Birmingha...

Arsenal won the North London derby and, after Liverpool’s slip up at home to Nottingham Forest, they re-take their place as Manchester City’s closest rivals. Because City obviously won again, didn’t they? In Spain, Barcelona continue to impress. On the pitch, at least, and Real Madrid still don’t look quite right.  AC Milan have finally won a league game, that’s great news for manager Paolo Fonsec...

Kylian Mbappe has claimed that PSG owe him the better part of £50m in unpaid salary. He’s refused the offer of mediation and it looks like this battle is set to run and run. In public too, which will be entertaining. Phil Hay drops by to tell us more.  And Mikel Arteta has signed a new contract with Arsenal, removing the nagging fear that someone else might snaffle him at the end of the season whe...

Pretty bad. They’ve lost four of their eight World Cup qualifiers and, while it should technically be impossible for them to fail to make it to the World Cup, somehow they’ve made the prospect plausible. Jack Lang joins us to tell us more.  Mauricio Pochettino has been confirmed as the new manager of the USMNT, but how big a job is this? You would think that his time at Chelsea would have prepared...