Hello and welcome to the game, football podcast from The Times and Sunday Times.

Javier Alonzo will manage in the Premier League next season, but not where many expected,

as the former Liverpool man takes on the challenging task of being in charge at Chelsea.

On today's show, we'll discuss the latest managerial movements as Michael

Carrick closes in on the Manchester United job. Arna Slot remains under pressure at Liverpool,

and Pep Guardiola keeps everybody guessing. We'll also discuss Celtic's last gasp glory against

hearts, debate the FA Cup final and latest Premier League action, nominate our underrated players

this season and delve into the mad world of Namar, one of football's great enigmas. I'm Tom Clark, and joining me today, we have the Football Reporter who covers clubs in the south of England with a focus on Chelsea. It's Peter Rutler, the Times columnist, James Gearbrandt, and the former footballer, turn journalist Gregor Robinson,on is with me as usual team welcome Pete and James to the new

studio you happy excited with your numbers seven and eleven down the wings I thought

for both of you one of you cutting inside one of you hurtling at full backs feel

like it's the perfect perfect combination of wide play would you say yeah a bit of

pace bit of creativity maybe yeah me overlapping as well, of course.

As if you've got the legs to over the back. With all your injuries, you always bang down on the show. You'll be staying firmly on the halfway line. On the halfway line, let's move on indeed, because we've got... Yeah, I want to be tracking back, man. Yeah, exactly. Got loads and loads and loads to discuss. So we're going to start with a rather bizarre question and ask Peter Rutzler, who was at Wembley for the FA Cup Final, to sum up the action that he saw on the pitch in about 60 seconds, because there's far too much off the pitch to discuss. I'm not wrong in kind of framing it like that. Am I, Pete? I watched this game. It wasn't any more exciting in the stadium, was it? No, not really. Great goal. The kind of goal you'd want to decide a cup final. A brilliant finish from Antoine Sermainio, who I actually thought was having not the best game beforehand? Because there were a couple of times, I think he took a shot that went out for a throw-in and he had a good chance ahead of the back post, but then produced that moment of magic that

you want to decide a game.

The rest of it was functional, tight.

I mean, Chelsea would have been happy with the way it was going.

I mean, they didn't create very much, they weren't great in their buildup.

Were Chelsea playing for that kind of game, were they going to kind of kill the

first half? A little bit. Playing for the last 20 minutes. Was it one of those where? I think they were trying to avoid getting caught out and making mistakes. It felt quite safe. I mean, the setup was safe. It was about five. Sanchez was going along with every kick. They just weren't holding it up. They weren't really moving the ball forward. It was only after half to half time where they started to build some momentum. which was actually when PEP changed it, because City, while they dominated the ball, they didn't create a lot. So he threw on Shirke. Shirki didn't really have the impact initially that I think would have been hoped. It was just as Chelsea were building momentum that Semenya scored. So, yeah, that's it. Yeah, a fitting finale for Semenio in a way, Gregor, though, because we talk about Bruno Fernandez a lot, player of the season. We're going to talk in the second half of the show about underrated players. But I mean, in terms of signings of the season, he's right up there, isn't he? I can't think of many others that can compete with him, even though he only joined in January. Martin. I mean, Martin Samuel referenced both him and Gayhe and his match report.

It's kind of, they changed the course of city season, made him more solid at the back.

And he formed a, Gayhi formed a really good relationship with Kusinov and Semenu offered a bit of magic and creativity and goals.

He scored, you know, been consistent in front of the goal. And that was a beautiful finish. Like it was, as much as it was a bit of a stinker of a game, it was a glorious finish. Just to kind of, to get enough momentum on the ball. It's a real flick in every sense of the world. Great, great goal. And it says as well about him as a player as well. I think a lot of people maybe when he signed thought, Or City have got quite a lot of attacking options. But he's been a guaranteed starter the whole time under Pep, hasn't he? Like playing big games. We've talked about it recently, Gregor, about Pepp's basically picking the same front four a lot of the time. He's in there the whole time. Absolutely, yeah. I mean, the great competition.

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