The Game Football Podcast

David Coote’s career as a referee looks to be over; but do we have unrealistic expectations of referees? If referees are berated by players, fans and coaches are they not allowed to react?Tom Clarke, Martin Samuel, Gregor Robertson and Tony Cascarino look at football’s relationship with its officials. Could or should the football culture around referee’s change?Harry Kane has questioned the number of dropouts from the England squad. Does it reflect injuries, a caretaker manager who leaves next week or the nations league group B?Plus, Martin’s ire is raised by the House of Lords…

After slow starts Millwall and Middlesbrough sit seventh and eighth in the Championship. Millwall haven’t looked back since they went back to the future and appointed club legend Neil Harris earlier this year. Gregor Robertson played with Harris and describes his strengths. Michael Carrick has been playing good football at the Riverside, but without the results to reflect it…that’s now changing. Tom Clarke joins Gregor to also look at Mark Robbins surprise departure from Coventry City; high flying Wycombe Wonders and Shrewsbury, and in League Two Walsall and Colchester.  

Liverpool are top, why aren’t more people talking about them?Alyson Rudd and Tom Allnut think they know why.Ipswich won in the topflight for the first time in 22 years, how did they do it? And has it put Ange Postecoglou’s swashbuckling style under pressure?Pep Guardiola has a look about him and Tom and Gregor Robertson have seen it before.Elsewhere Brighton, Brentford and Caicedo impress; West Ham don’t. Tom Clarke is the chair.

Manchester City lost for the third time in a week. That hasn’t happened since 2018. Is it more serious than a blip? Martin Samuel thinks it could be. He joins Gregor Robertson, Hamzah Khalique-Loonat and Tony Cascarino to look at City’s dip, Arsenal’s worries and Tyrone Mings mental aberration. Liverpool are top in Europe and top in the Premier League, what more could Liverpool fans want…? And Manchester United have a four year plan…another one.

What’s going wrong at Arsenal? Was this a freak result for City?After both lose again is it down to better opposition, poor performance, lacklustre management or plain old exhaustion? No such problems for Nottingham Forest who are now third in the table or Liverpool who roared back to go top against Brighton.Gregor Robertson dissects the weekends results with Martin Hardy, Alyson Rudd and James Gheerbrant.Plus, hats off to Bournemouth, Newcastle and Spurs and a quick look at dapper Van Nistelrooy and woeful West Ham.

Is Ruben Amorim the man to bring the good times back to Manchester United? As the current Portuguese coach is set to be named the new man in charge at Old Trafford what will he bring and more importantly what kind of squad will he inherit? Martin Samuel, Jonathan Northcroft and Gregor Robertson join Tom Clarke to assess his credentials to take over “…the biggest club in the land.”Can Ange-ball win a trophy at Spurs; Chelsea’s B team looked light against Newcastle and what makes a good leader?Oh, and a quick mention of rampant Aberdeen.

On the latest whistle-stop tour of the EFL, Gregor Robertson and Tom Clarke discuss Sunderland's surprise surge (which is starting to look less surprising), Coventry's potentially season changing win against Luton, Ian Holloway's latest adventure in Swindon and much more.

The big talking point from the weekend was Arsenal's draw at home to Liverpool, until it wasn't. Midway through today's episode, news broke that Erik ten Hag had been sacked by Manchester United. Join Tom Clarke, Alyson Rudd, Hamzah Khalique-Loonat & Gregor Robertson as they react to the news in the moment. And much, much more...

Is Arsenal’s mounting injury list going to derail their title bid? Not according to Martin Samuel or Hamzah Khalique-Loonat who both think teams that win titles win regardless of injuries – think Alisson, Haaland, De Bruyne or Van Dijk.Liverpool may not be the swashbuckling side from the Klopp era but are they even more effective under the controlled Slot?Does Erling Haaland get the credit he deserves? Who cares about link up play when you’ve scored 44 goals in 42 champions league games! Gregor Robertson oversees proceedings.