The Second Captains Podcast

The other four Champions Cup finals Leinster lost were all close, winnable and heartbreaking for fans; this defeat to Bordeaux however was over after 20 minutes and deeply concerning for all involved.We chat to Shane Horgan and Andrew Trimble about all the things that went wrong in Bilbao, and what this means for Leo Cullen, Nienaber and Irish rugby.And in a weekend of massive games in hurling and gaelic football the Kerry/Donegal half-time brouhaha could yet have long-term repercussions for Jim McGuinness, if the lengthy ban for Dublin's Ger Brennan was anything to go by.

A day of goodbyes - Pep Guardiola, Bernardo Silva, John Stones, Mohamed Salah, Andy Robertson, Seamus Coleman, West Ham United.Ken gives his Premier League team of the season, and you … to be honest, you won’t be surprised by too many of his picks.Dion Fanning and John Brewin join us to talk about the end of the Premier League season. How good a season was it? Does Pep Guardiola leave Manchester City having proved himself the greatest manager of all time? And who is most likely to step up and challenge the new Arsenal supremacy?

Welcome to winners week on the Second Captains world service! Arsenal are Premier League champions again after 22 long years, and Villa ended a 30 year wait for a trophy with their Europa League win last night.We got in touch with friend of the show Dara O’Briain and Jacob Hawley of the Screen Rot podcast, to reflect on Arsenal's journey these last few years under Arteta and to discuss the whole "choker" fallacy.We also examined the fallout from Southampton's expulsion from the Championship playoffs, we preview the Champions Cup and Challenge Cup finals, we grapple – not entirely successfully – with UEFA’s new format for the Nations League and European Qualifiers, and wonder if Carlo Ancelotti has done the right thing by including Neymar in the Brazil squad?Coming up tomorrow we have hurling and next week its Champions League and FIFA World Cup build up. Its a fiver to join, it takes 30 seconds, you have instant access to every show we’ve ever done, and all the top stuff coming up such as Ken at the World Cup, the Premier League and Champions League deciders, Madrid continuing to be insane, Rory’s majors quest, Leinster in the champions cup final, the munster hurling championship is getting red hot, and the football championship is getting real tasty too. GO TO secondcaptains.com/join

After last Sunday's heroics Roscommon may have thought they had the 2026 Cinderella Team mantle all to themselves, but yesterday in Croke Park Westmeath took that title from them, and took the Leinster title for only the second time in their history. Dara Ó Cinnéide and Paul Flynn were watching an insane day of Gaelic football - a day where Monaghan even came painfully close to turning over another pre-game favourite, before Armagh finally captured their first Ulster title since 2008. Plus there's Ken on the GAA's talent drain to Love Island and we salute golf's new working-class hero, Aaron Rai.

Most of the world wanted Hearts to win on Saturday but this little corner of it was an exception. Eoin swoons at the romance of his close personal friend Martin O'Neill becoming a champion again at the age of 74 while Ken confesses that technophobia has driven him into the sweaty arms of Celtic FC, a reassuringly old-fashioned, incompetent football entity. Rory "Jambo Unchained" Smith was at Celtic Park to see Celtic win the league. We talk about the game, the glory, the SCENES, and whether Hearts can do it again. Rory also analyses "the four mysteries" of Xabi Alonso joining Chelsea. Why didn't Liverpool show any interest? And do we really believe big Arne will still be there at the start of next season? 

Welcome to cheat week on the Second Captains world service! It all started with the Arsenal West Ham VAR fallout and got progressively murkier as the week went on with the Southampton "Spygate" saga, Celtic's questionable late penalty against Motherwell and Florentino Perez calling out all the haters and losers at Real Madrid.  There was also the news this week that Chelsea are looking to get Xavi Alonso as their next manager, news that astonished Ken given Liverpool seem a better fit and given how Liverpool's season has gone with Slot in charge.Coming up tomorrow we have the latest in our series of Fiesta Fridays ™ - last week it was Seve - this week it's bullfighting culture wars. Its a fiver to join, it takes 30 seconds, you have instant access to every show we've ever done, and all the top stuff coming up such as Ken at the World Cup, the Premier League and Champions League deciders, Madrid continuing to be insane, Rory's majors quest, Leinster in the champions cup final, the munster hurling championship is getting red hot, and the football championship is getting real tasty too. GO TO secondcaptains.com/join

The newest member of our championship punditry team, Dara Ó Cinnéide - already getting rave reviews - was at Dr Hyde Park to see Roscommon pip Murph's Galway to their first home win in a Connacht final in a quarter-century yesterday. Dara and Paul join us to chat about a huge day for the Rossies, the first provincial finals of the summer, Jayo Sherlock, and how, for David Clifford, it's all in the eyes. Plus there's Willie Hegarty's commentary par excellence and the return of the finest barber in the west. 

Arsenal are nearly there. As the manager flailed wildly with random substitutions, David Raya and Martin Ødegaard stood up to make sure that when the referees stepped up to rule on the climactic, decisive melee, Arsenal already had the crucial edge. We go through the fallout, and also talk about the Southampton spying scandal, while Eoin confesses to a faux pas in the presence of an unusually glamorous and sophisticated colleague.Nick Ames and Rich Jolly join us to talk about the West Ham-Arsenal VAR drama and debate some eternal questions. Is football's tottering refereeing system in need of urgent action to save it? Or is it actually working about as well as can be expected, but being sabotaged by a poisonous alliance of the cheating players and managers who disregard the rules, the self-righteous morons who watch them, and the entrepreneurial anger-farmers who whip everything up?Oh and Real Madrid we haven't forgotten about you. 

Welcome to our World Service taster show. This week was dominated by Arsenal Football Club, who could now win it all, or nothing, but either way should be allowed celebrate the wins along the way? We also covered PSG's second leg defensive masterclass, Guehi's blunder, Man Utd's next manager, Leinster and Ulster making European finals, footballers taking mid season holidays and we dedicate our Friday show to one of our all time sporting heroes, Seve Ballesteros.Click the player at the top of the page to play this taster show. To listen to our programming throughout the rest of the week, join the Second Captains World Service. It’s 5 euro a mont, there’s no contracts, no hidden fees and shows can be listened to on all good podcast apps, on Spotify or through our website. It’s independent, commercial-free and member-led with feature interviews, breaking news, Ken’s Football Show, The Politics Podcast, and lots of added extras. You’ll also be supporting the development of our longer-form work, such as our international series’ ‘Where Is George Gibney?’ and Stakeknife.