The Truth: What The Hell is Happening at Aston Villa?

Hello Rank Squad! Ranks is 5 years old this week, so we wanted to start by saying Thank You to all of you who listen regularly and who have stuck with us on this incredible journey since we went independent in 2020. As a little celebration, we wanted to bring back one of our most-loved episodes from the staples and revisit Sacking or Saving Under-Fire Managers for a FIFTH time. It's tough out there as a manager. You can be winning trophies and be the designated Chosen One one minute, and then on the verge of losing your job the next. It's brutal, but it's the way football works, so we wanted to take a look at some of the managers under the cosh this season, and what the future holds for them. We start with a big one from the Premier League - the future of Ruben Amorim at Manchester United, especially in the light of Sir Jim Ratcliffe's comments that he needed three years to prove his worth as a manager. Dean takes us on to three more in the Premier League - Ange Postecoglou at Nottingham Forest, Vitor Pereira at Wolverhampton Wanderers, and Scott Parker at Burnley - as we assess their situations and give our verdicts.  Then we head Continental, as Jack takes a look at who's under it in Europe - visiting Diego Simeone at Atletico Madrid, Sergio Francisco at Real Sociedad, Michel at Girona, Stefano Pioli at Fiorentina, Maurizio Sarri at Lazio and Igor Tudor at Juventus - to see what their situations look like in this international break.  It's Ranks! And remember, if you’d like more from the Rank Squad, including extra podcasts every Monday and Friday (including our weekly Postbox taking a look at the whole weekend of football) and access to our brilliant Discord community, then why not join us here on Patreon? Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

It's time for The Truth!Sam and Dougie are back in the studio to discuss Liverpool - which seems to be the topic on everybody's lips right now. After a perfect start to the season from a results perspective, three losses in a week have opened up a discourse which was previously being kept at bay - whether Liverpool's imbalances since a summer overhaul have actually made them weaker, even just in the short term. We work through the starting eleven, and why things look so drastically different to last season at the beginning of this, examine some of the problems that are currently peeking above the parapet, and try to pull together some suggestive solutions that Arne Slot could employ to address said issues. So, are Liverpool too chaotic this time round? Is this just a minor blip that will be straightened out as soon as the break is over? And can the new signings become as crucial to the Reds as some of their previous itinerants were? As ever, The Truth is somewhere in the middle... And remember, if you’d like more from the Rank Squad, including extra podcasts every Monday and Friday (including our weekly Postbox taking a look at the whole weekend of football) and access to our brilliant Discord community, then why not join us here on Patreon? Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello Rank Squad!With the international break upon us, we wanted to throw things forward a little bit, and dip into Dean's little black book of contacts to discuss some potential moves that could end up being the big stories of next year - either in January or in the summer transfer window. We start by examining the situation around Harry Kane at Bayern Munich and whether his release clause will trigger a scramble across Europe for his services; before discussing whether Enzo Fernandez could be one to make way in this Chelsea project if one of the big guns was willing to buy him out of what is a long tied-down contract from a huge transfer fee. We also talk through the future of Kobbie Mainoo, Mike Maignan, Dusan Vlahovic, Carlos Baleba, Joshua Zirkzee, Antoine Semenyo, Gleison Bremer and Yehor Yarmolyuk; who could all be subject to major interest over the next 12 months. It's Ranks! And remember, if you’d like more from the Rank Squad, including extra podcasts every Monday and Friday (including our weekly Postbox taking a look at the whole weekend of football) and access to our brilliant Discord community, then why not join us here on Patreon? Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

It's time for The Truth!Sam and Dougie are back in the studio to discuss Harry Kane, and the phenomenal form he has started this season in - continuing on from two exceptional seasons since joining Bayern Munich in 2023. Things start off with just some general appreciation of just how good the England captain has been in Bavaria, before we try to fit him into the pantheon of great strikers of the last decade. Better than Robert Lewandowski? How does he stack up against your Sergio Aguero's and your Luis Suarez's? Could anyone be as good as Karim Benzema? As ever, The Truth is somewhere in the middle... And remember, if you’d like more from the Rank Squad, including extra podcasts every Monday and Friday (including our weekly Postbox taking a look at the whole weekend of football) and access to our brilliant Discord community, then why not join us here on Patreon? Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello Rank Squad!It's the second Champions League Takeaway of the week, looking back at Wednesday's action from the second Matchday of the League stage. We start in Barcelona in a game which many wanted to be last season's final, as Luis Enrique's PSG were in town to play Hansi Flick's Barcelona. It ended in a dramatic win for the holders, but not before a cracking game with plenty of drama. Following that, we head to Monaco to take a look at Manchester City's controversial 2-2 draw which ended in a late equaliser from the spot for the hosts. In Part Two we address two wins for Premier League sides - a 4-0 hammering that Newcastle United dished out to Belgian Champions Union Saint-Gilloise, in one of their best performances so far this season; and Arsenal's 2-0 win over Olympiacos at the Emirates, where the full depth of Mikel Arteta's squad was put on display. In the final part, we round up all the rest of the action - Villarreal's 2-2 draw with Juventus which swung wildly in terms of momentum; Borussia Dortmund's dominant 4-1 win over a weakened Athletic Club; Napoli running it back Manchester style as they beat Sporting 2-1; Qarabag making it two wins from two with victory over Copenhagen; and Leverkusen's relatively dull 1-1 draw with PSV. It's Ranks!  And remember, if you’d like more from the Rank Squad, including extra podcasts every Monday and Friday (including our weekly Postbox taking a look at the whole weekend of football) and access to our brilliant Discord community, then why not join us here on Patreon? Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello Rank Squad!The Champions League is in full flow now and your Takeaway returns to have a look through all of Tuesday's action. We begin in Istanbul, where Liverpool's week took another tough turn with a 1-0 loss to Galatasaray - seeing Alisson and Hugo Ekitike injured in the process. We follow this up with a visit to their weekend opponents - Chelsea - who eked out a 1-0 win over former boss Jose Mourinho and his Benfica side. In Part Two we address the Madrid sides in the competition - it's been a very, very good week for Atletico, who backed up their derby win with another "manita" - smashing five past Eintracht Frankfurt; whilst Real notched five of their own on their long journey to Kairat Almaty - with Kylian Mbappé's red hot start to the season showing no signs of cooling off. In the final part, we address Spurs' 2-2 draw in the Arctic Circle against Bodø/Glimt - where Thomas Frank's side pulled off another rescue act - before rounding off all the other action: Bayern's 5-1 win over Pafos, Marseille's 4-0 hammering of Ajax; Inter swatting aside Slavia Prague 3-0; and Atalanta's 2-1 comeback win over Club Brugge. It's Ranks!  And remember, if you’d like more from the Rank Squad, including extra podcasts every Monday and Friday (including our weekly Postbox taking a look at the whole weekend of football) and access to our brilliant Discord community, then why not join us here on Patreon? Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

It's time for The Truth!Sam and Dougie are back in the studio to discuss the woeful start that Aston Villa have had in this campaign, and whether this is just a blip or something more concerning for Villa fans.We examine the fallout of the financial peril in the summer, the work in the transfer market that has potentially left Unai Emery shorthanded for this season, the influence of Monchi - who has now left his post at the club, the lack of width from the Villans so far in games, poor form from key players, and so much more. Is this just a blip or is there more deep rooted issues that might dog the club for the rest of this season? Can Emery turn things around, or is there cause for drastic action if a U-Turn isn't achieved in the near future? As ever, The Truth is somewhere in the middle... And remember, if you’d like more from the Rank Squad, including extra podcasts every Monday and Friday (including our weekly Postbox taking a look at the whole weekend of football) and access to our brilliant Discord community, then why not join us here on Patreon? Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello Rank Squad! We're now a couple of matchdays into the new season and some interesting trends are starting to rear their head in different capacities. Today, we take a look through some of the things to be keeping an eye on this season, the storylines that might prove to be pretty important come the end of this campaign. We start in the Premier League with a discussion of the newly promoted sides, their hot starts and what this might mean for the bottom rung of the established order - pondering whether this could be the year where finally the three up are not the three that go back down. Then it's off to the continent, discussing Real Madrid's newly found structural awareness under Xabi Alonso; the exciting resurgences of both Borussia Dortmund and RB Leipzig; sleeping giants finally awakening in Serie A; a potential battle for the ages for the Champions League spots in Ligue 1, where everyone is flawed and fun; and Francesco Farioli's hot start at Porto coming up against the return of Jose Mourinho at Benfica. It's Ranks!  And remember, if you’d like more from the Rank Squad, including extra podcasts every Monday and Friday (including our weekly Postbox taking a look at the whole weekend of football) and access to our brilliant Discord community, then why not join us here on Patreon? Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

It's time for The Truth!Sam and Dougie are back in the studio to take a look at the concept of the Bundesliga Tax - the idea that it is more difficult for players who come from the German top flight, to establish themselves as successful in the Premier League - something often thrown around on social media. So, what is it, does it genuinely exist, and what are the examples and evidence that you can use to suggest that such a tax does or doesn't play a factor when players move from the Bundesliga to the PL? We take a look at a host of them, as well as examining the differences between the leagues stylistically which may play a part in why adaptation takes longer from some leagues than from others. Does the Bundesliga's style mean players look like they overperform and thus are overvalued? Or is this just a case of Premface, with fans dismissing continental leagues as inferior despite evidence to the contrary? As ever, The Truth is somewhere in the middle... And remember, if you’d like more from the Rank Squad, including extra podcasts every Monday and Friday (including our weekly Postbox taking a look at the whole weekend of football) and access to our brilliant Discord community, then why not join us here on Patreon? Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello Rank Squad!We are back in business for the Champions League and there's plenty to discuss. We start with Thursday's action, where Marcus Rashford inspired Barcelona to a 2-1 win at St James' Park; before moving on to Manchester City's win over Napoli - which was fairly routine after Giovanni Di Lorenzo was sent off. We wrap up big wins for Eintracht and Sporting, before looking at Leverkusen coming twice from behind at Copenhagen and an incredible win for Club Brugge over Monaco. Then it's a look back at Wednesday, with Liverpool leaving it late yet again to win 3-2 against Atletico Madrid, Bayern sweeping Chelsea aside 3-1 thanks to a Harry Kane brace; as well as comfortable wins for last year's finalists PSG and Inter; a big first point for Pafos against Olympiacos; and honours even between Slavia Prague and Bodo/Glimt. It's Ranks!  And remember, if you’d like more from the Rank Squad, including extra podcasts every Monday and Friday (including our weekly Postbox taking a look at the whole weekend of football) and access to our brilliant Discord community, then why not join us here on Patreon? Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.