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.

Subscribe Listen in podnod RSS feed

147 episodes
Updated Today

Episodes147

Newest first

Aug 26, 2025 · 1 hr
Libero 047: Euro-trouble... is the Premier League's financial might causing problems on the continent?
The European club season is now underway, with the Champions League draw to follow on Thursday. James Horncastle and Miguel Delaney join John Brewin to discuss some of the key questions from the continent. The rest of Europe is taking some surprising decisions to keep up with the Premier League’s riches. Each of the so-called top-five leagues have taken different approaches. Can they work? Or are the major clubs now in control? Plus, some more logs are thrown on the PSR fire.
Aug 21, 2025 · 1 hr 2 min
Libero 046: Alexander Isak v Newcastle: A Player Power Battle
The biggest story of this summer’s transfer window is Alexander Isak. The Newcastle United striker is so desperate for a move that he has not been training with Newcastle United, and on Tuesday night he finally went public about his desire to leave. On today’s Libero, Jonathan Wilson, Rory Smith and Jack Pitt-Brooke try to get to the bottom of the story of the summer. How outraged should we be by Isak’s conduct? Is he ‘on strike’, insulting the fans, or is he just playing one of the
Aug 19, 2025 · 55 min
Libero 045: In Defence Of PSR
It’s the initialism on many people’s lips as the transfer window rages on. PSR, profit and sustainability rules: what are they good for? Miguel Delaney and Tariq Panja join John Brewin to pick through the weeds of surrounding what is, in reality, a rather a dry financial regulation covering accountancy to stop clubs spending beyond their means. Though, of course, as it’s modern football, where self-interest rules, it can never be that simple. Can there really be such a thing as financial fair
Aug 14, 2025 · 1 hr 4 min
Libero 044: Liverpool, Arsenal And The Premier League’s New Era (Maybe)
Is there a chance that Manchester City's imperial era is over, and might Arsenal-Liverpool be what replaces it? As everyone - again - waits for 'the City case' to end, there are other new uncertainties about Pep Guardiola and his team, whereas we know much more about what the champions and Arsenal are about. Could this herald a new rivalry at the top? Have Arsenal done enough? Have Liverpool done too much? And what of world champions, Chelsea? P1: (03:46)P2: (40:37) <p
Aug 12, 2025 · 58 min
Libero 043: Five Questions For The Premier League Season
Jonathan Wilson sets the new season’s agenda for Jack Pitt-Brooke and John Brewin ahead of Friday’s big kick-off. The title, the drop, the transfer market coming back in a big way and (30:17) the current trend for hulking No 9s are all discussed. Every team gets a mention. Well, apart from one. Can you guess who?  Produced by: Tom Bassam Join the Libero Fantasy League: <a href="https://fantasy.premierleague.com/leagues/auto-join/hjjtc0" rel="noopener noreferrer" targe
Aug 8, 2025 · 1 hr
Libero 042: Welcome To The Championship: Hollywood Endings, Parachutes And Cliff Edges
On today’s Libero Jack Pitt-Brooke, Jonathan Wilson and Tariq Panja turn their attention to the Championship. Is it still the most competitive league in the world? Or has that myth gone the same way as similar claims about the Premier League. With parachute payments distorting the competitive balance of the Championship so much, does it make the promotion race more predictable than ever? It’s hard to look past Ipswich Town for the top two places this season. And given the
Aug 5, 2025 · 59 min
Libero 041: The Last Dance Of Pep Guardiola?
He’s the undoubted coaching genius of 21st century football, admired, aspired to, much imitated and rarely bettered, but this summer has been one of unusual uncertainty for Pep Guardiola. Can Manchester City be revived? Does he have the players to achieve that? Jonathan Wilson, John Brewin and Miguel Delaney share their memories of Guardiola’s 17 years at the pinnacle of the game and (37:10) wonder if he has more reinventions to come.  Produced by: Tom Bassam Email in
Aug 1, 2025 · 1 hr 5 min
Libero 040: Is Jose Mourinho More Like Liam Gallagher Or Lenin?
On today’s podcast, James Horncastle, Jonathan Wilson and Jack Pitt-Brooke turn their attention to next week’s Champions League qualifiers, and particularly Jose Mourinho, who will take his Fenerbahce team to Feyenoord. So why are we still so fascinated by Mourinho even as his career moves further away from the top of the game? Does he embody something that the modern game is short of? And why did football start moving beyond him 10 or so years ago (35:07)? Ultimately it c
Jul 29, 2025 · 55 min
Libero 039: Proper England And Liverpool Spend, Spend, Spend
James Horncastle and Miguel Delaney join John Brewin in extending congratulations to England’s Lionesses, and handle the hot potato of patriotism. Will our brave girls really get arrested for saying they’re English? After that (22:23), as Luis Diaz joins Bayern Munich, the stars align for Liverpool’s move for Alexander Isak. What’s brought on all this Liverpool spending? What now for Newcastle? As the picture clears on the summer of strikers, which other deals do they see happening
Jul 25, 2025 · 1 hr 1 min
Libero 038: Manchester United and the LinkedIn saviours
On today’s pod James Horncastle, Tariq Panja and Jack Pitt-Brooke continue the discussion on Manchester United and ask: is there any way back to the top for them? (38:00) James points to the examples of how the Milan clubs have dealt with their own loss of status in recent years, and Tariq explains how Valencia have gone from two-time Champions League finalists to a complete mess in recent years. So what does the path back from here to success look like for United? And can anyone gu
Jul 23, 2025 · 1 hr 2 min
Libero 037: The Absolute State Of Manchester United
Hated, adored, never ignored, not least because their downfall entertains those who endured the glory years with gritted teeth. Jonathan Wilson, John Brewin and Rory Smith try to pinpoint where it went wrong for Manchester United, the club that was previously too big to fail, and is now so big a farce that nobody knows how long the decline can last and to what depths the fall will reach. Fergie, the Glazers, Big Sir Jim Ratcliffe, Ole, Bruno, Andy Tate: is no-one innocent?  Pro
Jul 18, 2025 · 54 min
Libero 036: Todd Boehly, football genius?
On today’s Libero, Jack Pitt-Brooke, Jonathan Wilson and Tariq Panja put the politics of the Club World Cup to one side and stick to the football. Specifically Enzo Maresca’s Chelsea, who can now call themselves world champions for the next four years. It has been a remarkable few months for Maresca and his team, and suddenly all of the doubts about his appointment, and indeed the whole Chelsea project, look like they have lost their sting. Maybe Todd Boehly and Clearlake know what they are d
Jul 15, 2025 · 1 hr
Libero 035: Trump, Infantino And The Meaning Of The Club World Cup
Now that the Club World Cup is over, Libero’s Miguel Delaney, James Horncastle and Rory Smith discuss what Gianni Infantino’s great jamboree means for football: not just the Saudi money that (indirectly) bankrolled the tournament, but the impetus of American private equity that brought it to this point. Before that, though, they unpack the defining image of the tournament, and possibly all modern football: President Donald Trump making it very clear that he would be celebrating Chelsea’s vict
Jul 11, 2025 · 55 min
Libero 034: Sesko Reimagined As A Giant Turkey
Jonathan Wilson and Miguel Delaney discuss with John Brewin a big week for Arsenal, and a fever dream featuring one of the Gunners’ potential new strikers. Is the pressure on Mikel Arteta or is that just a perception created by the myth of managers being capable of dragging a team over 'the line', whatever that is? Also, (36:14) if Joe Root sat in the seat next to you in a pub, would you recognise the greatest living English cricketer? Or has football’s dominance dampened his legac
Jul 9, 2025 · 57 min
Libero 033: Can We Not Just Be More Like Wimbledon?
On today’s episode Jack Pitt-Brooke, James Horncastle and Rory Smith discuss the Club World Cup, where James saw the start of the tournament, with Rory now in New York to see its climax. They ask whether this is the future of football, or just a very clear view of its present. Then conversation returns to last week’s question (27:05): what could threaten football’s dominant place in global culture? Could it be a threat from within football, with the game churning out so much co
Jul 4, 2025 · 58 min
Libero 032: Jesus Had A 2,000-Year Headstart On Ronaldo
This episode was recorded before the tragic news about the death of Diogo Jota and his brother. Jack Pitt-Brooke, Rory Smith and, eventually (18:41), James Horncastle try to get their heads around the sheer size of modern football. What happened to other sports? What special advantage does football have over everything else? And what is it about football that has allowed it to become the dominant cultural force in the modern world. And with footba
Jul 2, 2025 · 56 min
Libero 031: In Sarina We Trust?
Can women’s football sustain its exponential growth? Have the men just had a sliding doors without knowing it? The Women’s Euro 2025 gets underway in Switzerland this week with England nursing both (relatively) high hopes and (comparatively) low expectations. Why have two key players withdrawn from the squad? Can England retain their crown? What will failing to do so mean for Sarina Wiegman? And, if tournaments are always a barometer for the game, what will this say about women's football? </
Jun 27, 2025 · 54 min
Libero 030: John Textor, Skateboard Champion
On today’s Libero, Jack Pitt-Brooke, Tariq Panja and John Brewin ask the big question of the summer so far: who is John Textor? And what is going on with the ownership of Lyon and Crystal Palace? Lyon used to be one of Europe’s model clubs but now they are facing the prospect of relegation to Ligue 2. What does this tell us, not only about Textor, but about the multi-club model in general? Is there any upside at all in it for clubs. There is one Textor club that is having a great su
Jun 25, 2025 · 1 hr 2 min
Libero 029: Argentina And The Pie Of Football Mystique
Another summer, another tournament enlivened by marauding hordes of Argentina fans taking over beaches and shopping centres. On today’s Libero, Miguel Delaney, Rory Smith and Jonathan Wilson discuss what it is that makes Argentinian football culture so passionate and so appealing to outsiders, whether we overlook the reality of it in favour of the romance, and whether its allure is really a measure of our anxiety over the sanitised, commercial world of European football. James Horncastle dial
Jun 20, 2025 · 55 min
Libero 028: Talking About Talking About Transfers
Here we go, right into transfer season, so Miguel Delaney, Rory Smith and Jonathan Wilson discuss how it all actually works from a media perspective, as well as how reporting on it has evolved into an entire industry of its own, an adjunct to the actual football. We also (38:06), aware of our own hypocrisy, discuss an actual big transfer: Florian Wirtz to Liverpool. Produced by: Tom Bassam Email in at <a href="mailto:liberopodcast0@gmail.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" targ