The Athletic

Hello and welcome to the TIFO Football Podcast.

I'm John McKenzie and I'm joined as I always am by my good friend and producer Mike Zimmerman.

Mike, how are you doing?

I'm back. I'm feeling a lot better after being under the weather last week.

Yes, it's good to have you here so that I don't have to talk to myself in the intro.

But I didn't have to talk to myself in this week's podcast either because we had a really

exciting guest in Abol Majaroche, who is a German football expert.

And he was talking to us about some of the teams who have been the surprise packages in the Bundesliga

so far this season. Mike, you've just listened to that conversation. What was it that stood out to

you? I loved how he described how Shabby Alonzo has Leverkusen playing. Just because I am a Liverpool

fan and I have this glimmer of hope that Shabby Alonzo will be the next Liverpool manager. But it was great to hear

kind of how he's turned Leverkusen around. And I know you had mentioned how last season you didn't

want to jump on the Shabai Alonzo train too quickly. But now I think we're seeing the progression. And

it's it's easier to see how a Shabia Alonzo team is coming together and

how he wants a team to play. Yeah, two to all aboard. We are all Jabia Lanzo all the way

through but again no one wants to hear me speaking. What people want to hear is our guest

talking all about Leverkusen and Stuttgart, the two surprise packages in the Bundesliga this season.

The conclusion of last season's Bundesliga was one of the most exciting endings of a title challenge in recent memory and got everyone hyped for the following season.

And on top of that, Harry Kane made the move from Tottenham to Bayern Munich, a transfer which

shifted the new Bundesliga season into the attention of a lot more fans of the English

Premier League as well. However, when the season kicked off, it was neither Bayern Munich nor

...