Episode 3547: Arsenal So Close, Starlizard FC, Anger Farmers, Southampton Spy Ring, Madrid Psychodrama
Arsenal are nearly there. As the manager flailed wildly with random substitutions, David Raya and Martin Ødegaard stood up to make sure that when the referees stepped up to rule on the climactic, decisive melee, Arsenal already had the crucial edge.
We go through the fallout, and also talk about the Southampton spying scandal, while Eoin confesses to a faux pas in the presence of an unusually glamorous and sophisticated colleague.
Nick Ames and Rich Jolly join us to talk about the West Ham-Arsenal VAR drama and debate some eternal questions. Is football’s tottering refereeing system in need of urgent action to save it? Or is it actually working about as well as can be expected, but being sabotaged by a poisonous alliance of the cheating players and managers who disregard the rules, the self-righteous morons who watch them, and the entrepreneurial anger-farmers who whip everything up?
Oh and Real Madrid we haven’t forgotten about you.
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Seve, 15 years on.
A Second Captains tribute to a European great on the week of the anniversary of his death.
— Second Captains (@secondcaptains.bsky.social) 8 May 2026 at 13:37