Libero

A podcast about football, the least important of the most important things, featuring John Brewin, Miguel Delaney, James Horncastle, Tariq Panja, Jack Pitt-Brooke, Rory Smith and Jonathan Wilson.

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147 episodes
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Episodes147

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January 9 · 1 hr 4 min
Libero 086 | Amorim, Maresca And The Battle For Power
That’s been quite a week, hasn’t it? On today’s Libero, Miguel Delaney, Rory Smith and James Horncastle explore how the sackings of Enzo Maresca and Ruben Amorim shed light on where power lies at Manchester United, Chelsea and in the modern Premier League. Is it with the manager? Or is it with the faceless technocrats in the front office? P1: (02:38) P2: (34:34) Produced by: Tom Bassam Email in via liberopodcast0@gmail.com Subscribe to our YouTube channel @liberopod Follow us on X @podcast_libero Follow us on Bluesky @liberopodcast.bsky.social Follow us on Instagram @liberopod Follow us on TikTok @liberopod Follow us on Facebook @liberopod Music: Kid Kodi - Blue Dot Sessions Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
January 5 · 1 hr 1 min
Libero 085 | The Downfall Of Ruben Amorim
Libero is not a coach. It is a manager. It has always wanted to be Ruben Amorim. Even on the day he was sacked by Manchester United. Rory Smith, James Horncastle and Tariq Panja unite to discuss the downfall of the radically honest Amorim, what his defenestration means for Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s project and whether United can ever be saved. P1: (01:25) P2: (34:09) Produced by: Tom Bassam Email in via liberopodcast0@gmail.com Subscribe to our YouTube channel @liberopod Follow us on X @podcast_libero Follow us on Bluesky @liberopodcast.bsky.social Follow us on Instagram @liberopod Follow us on TikTok @liberopod Follow us on Facebook @liberopod Music: Kid Kodi - Blue Dot Sessions Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
January 2 · 1 hr 1 min
Libero 084 | The Things That Will Definitely Happen In Football This Year
It's the first Libero of 2026 and here to pick up the pieces of the festive period are Tariq Panja, Jack Pitt-Brooke, Rory Smith and Jonathan Wilson. In a World Cup year the panel make some bold, and some less bold, predictions about what football has in store over the next 12 months and potentially even further into the future. P1: (04:46) P2: (28:11) Produced by: Tom Bassam Email in via ⁠liberopodcast0@gmail.com⁠ Subscribe to our YouTube channel ⁠@liberopod⁠ Follow us on X ⁠@podcast_libero⁠ Follow us on Bluesky ⁠@liberopodcast.bsky.social⁠ Follow us on Instagram ⁠@liberopod⁠ Follow us on TikTok ⁠@liberopod⁠ Follow us on Facebook ⁠@liberopod⁠ Music: Kid Kodi - Blue Dot Sessions Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Dec 30, 2025 · 58 min
Libero 083 | The Stories That Defined Football In 2025
The Stories That Defined Football In 2025
Dec 26, 2025 · 53 min
Libero 082 | Rabona Bans, Transfer Speak And 'United'... Christmas Dinner Debates
John Brewin, Miguel Delaney, Rory Smith, Tariq Panja and Jonathan Wilson have all had a bit too much on Christmas Day and are ready to get into it with some of their pet hates in football. Pull up a chair, pour another Baileys and join us for the bit of Christmas dinner when everyone lets themself down a bit. Want to join in? Let us know your biggest football gripe in the comments. P1: (01:50) P2: (34:06) Produced by: Tom Bassam Email in via liberopodcast0@gmail.com Subscribe to our YouTube channel @liberopod Follow us on X @podcast_libero Follow us on Bluesky @liberopodcast.bsky.social Follow us on Instagram @liberopod Follow us on TikTok @liberopod Follow us on Facebook @liberopod Music: Kid Kodi - Blue Dot Sessions Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Dec 23, 2025 · 57 min
Libero 081 | The First Annual Libero Personality Of The Year Award
Black tie, ballgowns and montages... it's the Libero Personality of the Year award. Rory Smith is your host for this glittering event, where he is joined by the judging panel of John Brewin, Tariq Panja, Jack Pitt-Brooke and Jonathan Wilson to crown the winner of this loosely defined prize for the figure who defined football in 2025. Did we get it right? Let us know in the comments. P1: (4:41) P2: (29:58) Produced by: Tom Bassam Email in via liberopodcast0@gmail.com Subscribe to our YouTube channel @liberopod Follow us on X @podcast_libero Follow us on Bluesky @liberopodcast.bsky.social Follow us on Instagram @liberopod Follow us on TikTok @liberopod Follow us on Facebook @liberopod Music: Kid Kodi - Blue Dot Sessions Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Dec 19, 2025 · 59 min
Libero 080 | World Cup Tickets, Did It Need To Be Like This?
It's basic supply and demand, right? Fifa has stunned most of the world by making the 2026 World Cup the most expensive tournament ever for the match-going fan, with dynamic ticket prices that could see its flagship event deliver as much as $14 billion in revenues, because - ultimately - that is what football is all about. Here to question why the football powers that be are milking fans, the game's lifeblood, dry are John Brewin, Tariq Panja and Rory Smith. P1: (02:23) P2: (36:42) Produced by: Tom Bassam Email in via liberopodcast0@gmail.com Subscribe to our YouTube channel @liberopod Follow us on X @podcast_libero Follow us on Bluesky @liberopodcast.bsky.social Follow us on Instagram @liberopod Follow us on TikTok @liberopod Follow us on Facebook @liberopod Music: Kid Kodi - Blue Dot Sessions Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Dec 16, 2025 · 55 min
Libero 079 | What's Stopping Newcastle Becoming 'The New Manchester City'?
Manchester City racked up another Premier League win this weekend, beating Crystal Palace 3-0 with another display of their new direct, powerful individualistic style. Their change of direction this season has shown us a new side of Pep Guardiola, more pragmatic, more ruthless, and back in the hunt for the title. On today’s Libero, Jack Pitt-Brooke, Miguel Delaney and Jonathan Wilson discuss City’s improving form and ask whether this new Guardiola is more akin to Sir Alex Ferguson or even Carlo Ancelotti. But while City chase their ninth Premier League title in the Abu Dhabi era, the Saudi project at Newcastle United is making slower progress four years on. Discussion turns to why Newcastle have found it hard to emulate City’s success, ask whether they will ever have a moment like the one in 2012 that set up City’s era of dominance. P1: (03:45) P2: (30:47) Produced by: Tom Bassam Email in via liberopodcast0@gmail.com Subscribe to our YouTube channel @liberopod Follow us on X @podcast_libero Follow us on Bluesky @liberopodcast.bsky.social Follow us on Instagram @liberopod Follow us on TikTok @liberopod Follow us on Facebook @liberopod Music: Kid Kodi - Blue Dot Sessions Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Dec 12, 2025 · 57 min
Libero 078 | The Big Beautiful World Cup: Six Months To Go
With six months to go until the newly-expanded greatest show on Earth, today’s Libero considers what a World Cup designed by FIFA, Gianni Infantino and Donald Trump will look like. Jack Pitt-Brooke, Rory Smith and Miguel Delaney ask how the football will play out, what the fan experience will feel like, and how political the whole event might be. Visit nordvpn.com/libero to get four extra months on a two-year plan with NordVPN. P1: (05:50) P2: (36:04) Produced by: Tom Bassam Email in via liberopodcast0@gmail.com Subscribe to our YouTube channel @liberopod Follow us on X @podcast_libero Follow us on Bluesky @liberopodcast.bsky.social Follow us on Instagram @liberopod Follow us on TikTok @liberopod Follow us on Facebook @liberopod Music: Kid Kodi - Blue Dot Sessions Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Dec 9, 2025 · 55 min
Libero 077 | Mo Salah, Player Power And Undignified Exits
"I have done so much for this club down the years and especially last season. Now I’m sitting on the bench and I don’t know why. It seems like the club has thrown me under the bus." These were the words of Mo Salah after Liverpool's dispiriting 3-3 draw with Leeds at the weekend. A match where Salah, last season's top scorer and the club's perennial talisman, did not make it off the substitutes bench. As Liverpool's title defence melts away amid a multitude of problems beyond the misfiring Egyptian, why does it appear Salah appear to be heading for the exit, how has it comes to this and why do heroes so rarely get the goodbyes they want? John Brewin, Jonathan Wilson and Miguel Delaney try to answer those questions, and others, on the latest Libero. P1: (2:57) P2: (27:44) Produced by: Tom Bassam Email in via liberopodcast0@gmail.com Subscribe to our YouTube channel @liberopod Follow us on X @podcast_libero Follow us on Bluesky @liberopodcast.bsky.social Follow us on Instagram @liberopod Follow us on TikTok @liberopod Follow us on Facebook @liberopod Music: Kid Kodi - Blue Dot Session Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Dec 5, 2025 · 59 min
Libero 076 | The Long Barclays... Is Football Trapped In The 90s?
Rory Smith is joined by John Brewin and James Horncastle, who – like the anxious middle-aged men they are – are seeking refuge in the past. But a past that informs our present in a way that is actually quite odd, because in many ways it does feel like football can’t quite escape the 1990s. Today's kits are based on designs from the 90s, the famous pundits who shape how we understand the game, largely started their playing careers in the 90s. We're still listening to Oasis. Why is this? Is this obsession with the not-too-distant past unique to our current era? Are we bound to 'Live Forever', forever? P1: (08:19) P2: (33:03) Produced by: Tom Bassam Email in via ⁠⁠liberopodcast0@gmail.com⁠⁠ Subscribe to our YouTube channel ⁠⁠@liberopod⁠⁠ Follow us on X ⁠⁠@podcast_libero⁠⁠ Follow us on Bluesky ⁠⁠@liberopodcast.bsky.social⁠⁠ Follow us on Instagram ⁠⁠@liberopod⁠⁠ Follow us on TikTok ⁠⁠@liberopod⁠⁠ Follow us on Facebook ⁠⁠@liberopod⁠⁠ Music: Kid Kodi - Blue Dot Sessions Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Dec 2, 2025 · 59 min
Libero 075 | Are Chelsea Actually Good?
Chelsea held Arsenal to a 1-1 draw on Sunday even though they were reduced to 10 men in the first half. They looked like a proper Chelsea team, playing in a proper Chelsea atmosphere. And even though they missed the chance to go second, and close the gap to three points, it felt like a day that strengthened their reputation, and that of their coach Enzo Maresca. So on today’s Libero, Jack Pitt-Brooke, Miguel Delaney and Jonathan Wilson discuss Chelsea’s strong progress. And they ask whether we might all need to re-assess our views of Maresca, the coaching job he has done there, and maybe even the recruitment strategy of Todd Boehly and Clearlake too. Because some of their much-criticised signings now look like far-sighted investments. P1: (12:14) P2: (27:43) Produced by: Tom Bassam Email in via liberopodcast0@gmail.com Subscribe to our YouTube channel @liberopod Follow us on X @podcast_libero Follow us on Bluesky @liberopodcast.bsky.social Follow us on Instagram @liberopod Follow us on TikTok @liberopod Follow us on Facebook @liberopod Music: Kid Kodi - Blue Dot Sessions Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Nov 28, 2025 · 1 hr 1 min
Libero 074 | How You Watch Football Is About To Change All Over Again
Football is ultimately a TV show, however much we might want to see it differently. The story of the rise of football over the last 40 or so years inseparable from the changes in technology, not least satellite TV in the UK and the relationship between the Premier League and what is now Sky Sports, dating back to 1992. You cannot understand the Premier League or modern football independent of that. But nothing lasts forever and this month saw news that could change the football TV landscape. Paramount+ has won the rights to show the Champions League in the UK and Germany, another step forward for the US-backed streamers who want to show the European game. Amazon Prime has already had Premier League and Champions League rights, and everyone is wondering whether Netflix will ever get involved. On today’s Libero, Jack Pitt-Brooke, Rory Smith and John Brewin look at the changing picture of football and TV, explain why technology is the most important story in the game, and ask whether the Premier League may eventually choose to own its own platform to compete. P1: (06:34) P2: (26:42) Produced by: Tom Bassam Email in via liberopodcast0@gmail.com Subscribe to our YouTube channel @liberopod Follow us on X @podcast_libero Follow us on Bluesky @liberopodcast.bsky.social Follow us on Instagram @liberopod Follow us on TikTok @liberopod Follow us on Facebook @liberopod Music: Kid Kodi - Blue Dot Sessions Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Nov 25, 2025 · 55 min
Libero 073 | Why Is It So Hard To Retain The Premier League Title?
Only three managers have ever won back-to-back Premier League titles and that figure does not look likely grow this season. Managerial greats such as Arsene Wenger, Jurgen Klopp and Antonio Conte have all failed, so what is it about the Premier League that is so difficult to hang on to and is that going to change in an era where the top clubs have more advantages than ever before? James Horncastle asks the questions, while Jonathan Wilson and Miguel Delaney search for answers. P1: (05:17) P2: (26:13) Produced by: Tom Bassam Email in via liberopodcast0@gmail.com Subscribe to our YouTube channel @liberopod Follow us on X @podcast_libero Follow us on Bluesky @liberopodcast.bsky.social Follow us on Instagram @liberopod Follow us on TikTok @liberopod Follow us on Facebook @liberopod Music: Kid Kodi - Blue Dot Sessions Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Nov 21, 2025 · 57 min
Libero 072 | Arsenal v Tottenham: Who Really Owns North London?
A team of interlopers from Kent are now arguably London's biggest club and with the pendulum of power swinging back Arsenal's way in recent years, a league title appears possible again. Did North London's original club, Tottenham, miss the opportunity to retake primacy? And what are the origins of one of the Premier League's great fixtures? Jonathan Wilson, Jack Pitt-Brooke and Miguel Delaney go deep on the North London Derby. P1: (4:35) P2: (25:33) Produced by: Tom Bassam Email in via liberopodcast0@gmail.com Subscribe to our YouTube channel @liberopod Follow us on X @podcast_libero Follow us on Bluesky @liberopodcast.bsky.social Follow us on Instagram @liberopod Follow us on TikTok @liberopod Follow us on Facebook @liberopod Music: Kid Kodi - Blue Dot Sessions Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Nov 19, 2025 · 37 min
Libero 71b | ACTUALLY The Greatest Week Of Football Ever
Last week Libero called this the greatest week in football but little did we know the drama to come. In fact, there was so much to talk about we decided a bonus episode was in order. Here to talk through all things World Cup qualification are Miguel Delaney, Jonathan Wilson and Tariq Panja. P1: (1:31) P2: (18:53) Produced by: Tom Bassam Email in via liberopodcast0@gmail.com Subscribe to our YouTube channel @liberopod Follow us on X @podcast_libero Follow us on Bluesky @liberopodcast.bsky.social Follow us on Instagram @liberopod Follow us on TikTok @liberopod Follow us on Facebook @liberopod Music: Kid Kodi - Blue Dot Sessions Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Nov 18, 2025 · 1 hr 3 min
Libero 071 | Cristiano Ronaldo’s Search For A Happy Ending
Cristiano Ronaldo might not have done it exactly how he would have wanted — getting sent off while losing to Ireland — but the 40-year-old Al Nassr frontman is now on his way to a sixth World Cup with Portugal. On this week’s Libero, John Brewin, James Horncastle and Rory Smith discuss addiction: Ronaldo’s addiction to playing and Portugal’s addiction to Ronaldo, and contemplate whether his wealth, his celebrity and his prominence have started to affect how he is perceived as a player. Do we, somehow, manage not to give one of the greatest players of all time his due? And is that our fault, or his? P1: (7:49) P2: (33:04) Produced by: Tom Bassam Email in via liberopodcast0@gmail.com Subscribe to our YouTube channel @liberopod Follow us on X @podcast_libero Follow us on Bluesky @liberopodcast.bsky.social Follow us on Instagram @liberopod Follow us on TikTok @liberopod Follow us on Facebook @liberopod Music: Kid Kodi - Blue Dot Sessions Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Nov 13, 2025 · 57 min
Libero 070 | Why This Is The Best Week In Football
The international break can often seem a chore, but this time around there are bountiful reasons for optimism. Miguel Delaney, James Horncastle and Jonathan Wilson discuss why this week - and specifically this week - is one of the best in world football. There is just nothing like the joy of qualifying for the World Cup, a feat more pronounced because it occurs only once every four years. The lads look back at the years that have made this week what it is - particularly 1993 - and why this pu
Nov 11, 2025 · 1 hr
Libero 069 | Liverpool's Mo Salah Conundrum
Liverpool fans rejoiced when the club signed Mo Salah to a new contract. With Liverpool’s title defence in tatters, the team in chaos, have Liverpool got a Mo Salah problem? The Egyptian has lit up Anfield for the best part of a decade but would last season’s title have been the right time to move on? John Brewin, Rory Smith and Tariq Panja try to answer the question and wonder why it’s so hard to say goodbye. They also look at whether we now have an Arsenal against Manchester City title race
Nov 7, 2025 · 57 min
Libero 068 | The Premier League’s Goldilocks Clubs
There is one big question that today's Libero is seeking to answer and that is: is it fundamentally easier to change the fortunes of a club with less historical baggage? Are the likes of Bournemouth, Brentford and Brighton really following in the footsteps of 2003 Chelsea? To do so Rory Smith is joined by Jonathan Wilson and John Brewin for a discussion that covers a lot of ground. P1: (08:57)P2: (40:25) Produced by: Tom Bassam Email in via <a href="mailto