SC Libero, the most important of the least important membership clubs, is now live! Get on the bandwagon early, before broadsheet journalists start describing us as doing 'interesting things' at liberopodcast.com.

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Chelsea’s fine for secret payments from the Premier League between 2011 and 2018 might have been a record £10 million but within the game that punishment and suspended transfer ban have brought complaints of leniency.

Do off-book payments that secured the likes of Eden Hazard sully the club’s successes during that period under Roman Abramovich’s ownership? Is that leniency protecting the Premier League product? And now, post-Abramovich, how is the club faring under the ownership of asset managers and venture capitalists. Miguel Delaney and Tariq Panja discuss the then and now with John Brewin.

P1: (06:01)

P2: (38:11)

Produced by: Tom Bassam

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Music: Kid Kodi - Blue Dot Sessions

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SC Libero, the most important of the least important membership clubs, is now live! Get on the bandwagon early, before broadsheet journalists start describing us as doing 'interesting things' at liberopodcast.com.

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Sunday’s Carabao Cup final could be a historic day for Arsenal. It is their first final since they won the 2020 FA Cup and could mark the start of a glorious climax to the 2025/26 season. On today’s episode Rory Smith, Jack Pitt-Brooke and Jonathan Wilson ask what it would mean for Mikel Arteta to win his second major trophy as Arsenal manager and reflect on the club's wilderness years reaching back to thir last Premier League title under Arsene Wenger in 2003/04.

Was it to do with the lack of investment? Or an out-dated decision making structure? So have Arsenal stepped into the future, or have they just found a modern manager?

P1: (07:13)

P2: (29:06)

Produced by: Tom Bassam

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Music: Kid Kodi - Blue Dot Sessions

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For all of the Premier League's clubs financial advantages over their European rivals, they are facing a wipeout in the Champions League. Is it fatigue? Is it tactics? Is it a massive waste of resources? Or are Miguel Delaney, James Horncastle and Tariq Panja going to looking a bit silly on Thursday?

P1: (01:36)

P2: (28:26)

Produced by: Tom Bassam

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Music: Kid Kodi - Blue Dot Sessions

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Atmosphere is one of the Premier League’s biggest selling points to broadcasters, but ask anyone who regularly goes to games and they will tell you that atmospheres in English grounds are in stark decline. If we do accept that atmospheres are getting worse, why is that?

On today’s episode John Brewin, Jack Pitt-Brooke and James Horncastle try to unpack what exactly we mean when we talk about a ‘good atmosphere’, and whether we are taking a selective view of English football's vibrant year gone by.

P1: (02:41)

P2: (31:19)

Produced by: Tom Bassam

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Music: Kid Kodi - Blue Dot Sessions

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Libero might like knocking the Champions League, but even we know there's nothing like European knock-out football for compelling drama. But with six English clubs in the last 16 and Manchester City playing Real Madrid, again, is this really as exciting as it should be? Is this as good as it once was? This week on Libero, Miguel Delaney, Tariq Panja and Rory Smith ask when the Champions League was at its best, what it was that made it so special, and whether that can be recaptured.

P1: (10:45)

P2: (37:11)

Produced by: Tom Bassam

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Music: Kid Kodi - Blue Dot Sessions

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Every year football's rich and powerful gather at a West London hotel to do deals, shake hands and talk about the game in a way would be quite unfamiliar to anyone not in the posh seats at 3pm on a Saturday. Several Liberi were in attendance at the recent FT Business of Football Summit, so they found a quiet corridor to discuss what they'd overheard at the conference, as well as the detachment between those who seek to profit from football and the game itself. You'll hear from Tariq Panja, Rory Smith, Miguel Delaney and James Horncastle. There's also a fabulous cameo from The Mirror's John Cross.

P1: (00:27)

P2: (25:03)

Produced by: Tom Bassam, who apologises for the lack of proper video on this episode.

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Music: Kid Kodi - Blue Dot Sessions

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In recent years it has felt as if the Premier League was permanently stratified, with the poor teams unable to win and the rich teams unable to lose. But Tottenham Hotspur have the ninth biggest revenue in Europe and they are at increasing risk of going down.

On today’s episode Jack Pitt-Brooke, John Brewin and Jonathan Wilson discuss the possibility of Spurs’ relegation from the top flight. Jonathan tells the story of their relegation in the 1970s, and the team ask whether that is comparable to a big team going down in 2026.

Because if Spurs do go - and they still have a four point gap - what would it mean for English football? Would it tell us that the Premier League is in fact starting to de-stratify?

P1: (05:39)

P2: (27:34)

Produced by: Tom Bassam

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Music: Kid Kodi - Blue Dot Sessions

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It is – it turns out – quite difficult to pin down an accurate definition of what 'bottling it' means and, therefore, which teams can be fairly described as having committed this failure of will in the past. Miguel Delaney, Rory Smith and Jonathan Wilson give it their best shot at outlining the true meaning of the phrase and discuss the most famous 'bottle jobs' in football history. With the nerve of Mikel Arteta's Arsenal being severely tested as they seek to end a 26-year wait for a Premier League title, are we about to see another egregious example of 'bottling it' or would it be unfair to apply that description to this Gunners side? All covered in a landmark episode of Libero.

P1: (02:43)

P2: (27:46)

Produced by: Tom Bassam

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Music: Kid Kodi - Blue Dot Sessions

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Jose Mourinho will take his Benfica team back to Real Madrid on Wednesday night, trying to get through to the last-16 of the Champions League.

It is now almost 13 years since Mourinho left Real Madrid but his three year spell there remains one of the most interesting periods in modern football. Never before or since has Florentino Perez handed over the keys to a coach so determined to work against his players rather than with them.

On today’s episode John Brewin, Miguel Delaney and Jack Pitt-Brooke look back at Mourinho’s time at Real, the triumph of the 2011-12 La Liga win and the toxic descent in his final year. Was this the peak of his career? Or was it the turning point before it all started to go wrong?

P1: (06:26)

P2: (36:48)

Produced by: Tom Bassam

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Music: Kid Kodi - Blue Dot Sessions

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It’s Champions League punishment round week, which means clubs who were among the biggest and best in Europe 10 years ago are slogging it out to make it through to the last-16.

The question on today’s show is what these sides - especially Juventus, Benfica and Borussia Dortmund - can realistically achieve in a European game that is now stacked against them.

Jack Pitt-Brooke, Tariq Panja and James Horncastle discuss whether they ever build a competitive team to last, or whether they will just get picked off by the vultures at the first sign of success. And if they can’t hope to win any more, are they left with a sense of identity that they can fall back on?

P1: (10:28)

P2: (31:50)

Produced by: Tom Bassam

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Music: Kid Kodi - Blue Dot Sessions

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In a world where Jack Grealish becomes 'The Rest Station' and Jürgen Klopp insists that no playmaker can be as effective as counter-pressing, it is fair to say that the game's creative geniuses are being marginalised like never before. Has systems football stunted players' ability to think for themselves? Do free spirits have no place in modern tactics? A trio of Libero mavericks, Miguel Delaney, James Horncastle and Jonathan Wilson, attempt some free-thinking to discover the root cause of this troubling trend.

P1: (01:53)

P2: (27:44)

Produced by: Tom Bassam

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Music: Kid Kodi - Blue Dot Sessions

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