No football just literature and history.

A Drop of Corruption: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/735559/a-drop-of-corruption-by-robert-jackson-bennett/

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Tactics Tom is in charge for England the results were the same and the football was not scintillating but it was tactically distinct and interesting to discuss. So we had Grace Robertson of graceonfootball.com join us to discuss it. 

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We are joined by the Athletic's Adam Crafton to discuss his and his colleagues' reporting on Manchester United, what's happened since Jim Ratcliffe took over, what they claim they're doing and what it means for the club. And then we also discuss the increasingly explicit American political context of the upcoming World Cup and international soccer competitions and his reporting on that topic as well. 

Crafton et al on the most recent round of layoffs: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6157358/2025/02/25/manchester-united-job-cuts-details/

And on US VISA policy and the World Cup: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6163959/2025/02/28/2026-world-cup-usa-visa-wait-trump-fifa/

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We are joined by financial journalist (and soccer and cycling fan) Ben Walsh to learn about the great sport of road racing, the background of INEOS as a sports ownership group, and how fans of cycling were well ahead of the curve on what to expect from Ratcliffe at Manchester United. 

Check out Ben's newsletter, The Bender: https://bendwalsh.substack.com/

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Big matches in the Serie A title race get their due and then we talk about the team with the best underlying numbers in the Premier League recently, which as you surely all know is Crystal Palace.

Palace:  https://bsky.app/profile/scott.cannonstats.com/post/3ljdm73v3wn2o

Ovalle: https://bsky.app/profile/lawsonsv.bsky.social/post/3ljjheamocs26

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Huge six-pointers all around and we take stock of the teams we covered last week (City, Forest, Newcastle, Chelsea, Bournemouth) and ask how much we need to think further about Brighton and Villa after they made up ground. 

Simon Tinsley's PL projections: https://analytic-fpl.streamlit.app/

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There are probably right now five teams in a race for three spots. We take a close look at Nottingham Forest, Chelsea, City, Bournemouth and Newcastle and handicap the race. It's a close one!

Simon's projection website: https://analytic-fpl.streamlit.app/

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We wrote an article on financialization and soccer for Bloomberg, and it helped us crystallize our thinking on the state of the business of football. On labor costs and competition, on regulation and financialization, on Covid-era changes in the economic environment, on oligarch and state ownership and what it means for solidarity in the capital class, it's all here.

A whole bunch of links.

Our Bloomberg article: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2025-01-29/how-football-has-become-a-hotbed-of-financial-engineering

Caley's further thoughts: https://www.expectinggoals.com/p/further-thoughts-on-the-business

Interview with Jon Sindreu on Barca's finances: https://www.buzzsprout.com/819853/episodes/14587568-barcelona-finance-with-jon-sindreu

Interview with Jonathan Clegg on the formation of the Premier League: https://www.buzzsprout.com/819853/episodes/2510416

Grace Robertson on the Premier League tv deal: https://www.graceonfootball.com/p/the-premier-league-is-selling-its

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After multiple contradictory developments, Tottenham landed Mathys Tel on loan from Bayern and also signed a deal with Bayern and Tel for an option that remains hard to pin down. We talk about the story here and how it probably went down (we disagree a little on this!) and what kind of player Tel is and what Tottenham can expect. 

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Two big matches between teams in the chase for the Champions League places. What we learned from City's new tactical approach, how Chelsea approached this match, and how Bournemouth won big. 

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Another weekend, another loss, another tumble further into the bottom half of the table for Tottenham and United. We talk about the problem of what a club should do when things are bad and yet there isn't a lot to be done immediately and they really just need a longer-term strategy or better execution of such. 

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