Libero

There has been no bigger change to football in the 21st century than VAR. On today’s Libero, Jack Pitt-Brooke, Jonathan Wilson and Tariq Panja want to do more than just complain about it, and the harm that it has done to the modern game. They also want to explore how we got into this position, from Gianni Infantino replacing Sepp Blatter through to its introduction at the 2017 Confederations Cup. We are now about to head into our third men’s World Cup with VAR, and it does feel like a permanent part of the game. So is there any reason for optimism? The team discuss potential tweaks to VAR to improve it. And then whether we can ever be optimistic about bottom-up change, fans standing up together against VAR, and changing football for good. P1: (5:28) P2: (31:31) Produced by: Tom Bassam Email in via getintouch@liberopodcast.com Subscribe to our YouTube channel @liberopod Follow us on X @podcast_libero Follow us on Bluesky @liberopodcast.com 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

In Libero’s lifetime, the panelists have regularly lamented the spectacle served up by the Premier League, but after a bumper weekend, Rory Smith, James Horncastle and John Brewin dwell on whether we’re actually a bit spoilt and if viewers standards have risen with the quality of the football on offer. Drowned out by the often negative online noise, Libero remembers to enjoy itself in this episode, focusing on what’s still great about ‘our league’. P1: (03:43) P2: (27:36) Produced by: Tom Bassam Email in via getintouch@liberopodcast.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

"In the middle area of the pitch, those 24 metres, we feel the game has become stuck, particularly in the Premier League. Everybody has so much information now.” These were the words of Anthony Barry, Thomas Tuchel's number two, back in November, when discussing the what England players face week-to-week in the Premier League. On this episode, John Brewin, Miguel Delaney and Rory Smith discuss to what lengths that is true, why the game has developed in this way and what is being left behind as physicality becomes football's default setting. P1: (04:28) P2: (32:02) Visit MedExpress.co.uk to check your eligibility and get 30% off with code LIBERO. Produced by: Tom Bassam Email in via getintouch@liberopodcast.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

Wednesday sees the climax of the Champions League's 144-game 'league phase', a TV bonanza featuring 18 fixtures, after which we will know who made the top eight, who faces the punishment round and who goes home. It's thrilling stuff, we're told. On today’s Libero, Jack Pitt-Brooke, Jonathan Wilson and Tariq Panja discuss the second season of the new format and wonder whether the pay-off is worth the long slog. With six English teams vying for a spot in the top eight, it feels like the most Premier League dominated Champions League season yet. So why don’t English teams win the competition more often? And is this imbalance actually more of a problem than the format itself? P1: (09:40) P2: (31:01) Produced by: Tom Bassam Email in via getintouch@liberopodcast.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

Thomas Frank may have delayed his departure with that surprisingly comfortable win over Borussia Dortmund, but that is only the tip of Tottenham’s problems. What is the club’s strategy? What do they want to be? Do they no longer have a sense of quest? To answer all of that are Jack Pitt-Brooke, Miguel Delaney and Rory Smith. P1: (05:14) P2: (29:21) Produced by: Tom Bassam Email in via getintouch@liberopodcast.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

It was supposed to be the smoothest running Africa Cup of Nations in tournament history, all the edges levelled off. Then came Sunday’s final and unbelievable scenes in Rabat: dodgy penalties, an even dodgier Panenka, Brahim Diaz’s tears, riot police and Senegal denying what had looked a triumph custom-designed for the Moroccan hosts. That Jonathan Wilson was there to see it - his 12th AfCon final, no less - grants Libero an eyewitness account of the drama, while John Brewin, also a visitor to the tournament, shares his thoughts and experiences of ground-hopping in Morocco. Tariq Panja joins them to consider the political implications of AfCon’s change to every four years, and the influence of Gianni Infantino on a decision few appear comfortable with or understand. P1: (00:49) P2: (28:52) Produced by: Tom Bassam Email in via ⁠getintouch@liberopodcast.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

He might have been a playing legend but that ended up counting for nothing as Xabi Alonso became the latest Real Madrid manager to be crushed between the weight of galacticos and the biggest Madrileno of them all, Florentino Perez. Was it doomed from the start? Good luck then, Alvaro Arbeloa, with taming the beast. Miguel Delaney and Rory Smith join John Brewin to discuss football’s most preposterous and haughty club. Has Xabi’s reputation as one of the best coaches in world football suffered? Does the white storm still possess the power of old? Are the galacticos as good as they think they are? P1: (02:24) P2: (28:24) 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

Rory Smith enjoyed going viral for his rant against Chelsea's egregious exploitation of Ligue 1 'sister club' Strasbourg so much that he wanted to make a whole podcast about it. Luckily, James Horncastle was keen to provide operatic hosting duties and Miguel Delaney has an opinion on the issue, so we did. Covered is the morality of the multi-club groups, the shades of grey offered by different approaches and, if any, the logic behind the concept. P1: (01:05) 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

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

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

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

As the year nears its end, Miguel Delaney, Tariq Panja, Jack Pitt-Brooke and Jonathan Wilson take the opportunity to look back at 2025 to pick out football's major narratives. P1: (10:04) P2: (33:30) 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

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

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

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

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

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

"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

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

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