The Second Captains Podcast

The Premier League season labours past week 4 with a sense that things are yet to fully ignite - but the recently rebranded Pro Ref, formerly known as PGMOL, has hit its stride by issuing their first apology of the season.

After a weekend dominated by the referees, it seems a good moment to welcome to the pod William Ralston, author of a new book about refereeing: "The Impossible Job - The Truly Unbelievable World of Football Referees."

What kind of person becomes a referee? Why do they do it? What makes a good one? And how has VAR changed what it means to be a ref?
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From the Air Force One fly-by to the Chinook helicopters to the talk on Irish unity to chants of "four more years" in the Doonbeg clubhouse, it was as strange a weekend as Irish sport has ever seen.

None of it bothered Shane Lowry, who put in a stunning 4 days of golf to beat the field by a record margin of 11 shots. Gavin Cooney was there to witness the chaos and the golf and he joins us in studio today.

Plus there's whiskey-washing, empty promises, Solheim celebrations and golf loves Trump.
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The English teams have been tearing it up in the Champions League so far this week. We chatted to Lars Sivertsen about Martin Ødegaard’s blistering early-season form and signs that adoption of tactics long-favoured at Arsenal and Manchester City might be helping Liverpool turn a corner under Andoni Iraola?

The Parrott theme was strong throughout the week given he's scored the winner in the last two game. Ken was irked by some beak/peck errors on Real Betis' social media accounts and the commentary of TNT's Jonathan Pearce.

We also covered Mary McAleese going nuclear on the GAA, Trump's Doonbeg trip, Erling Haaland’s able deputies at Manchester City (there are none), and Souness destroying Declan Rice.

To listen to all our programming throughout the rest of the week, join the Second Captains World Service. There’s no contracts, no hidden fees and shows can be listened to on all good podcast apps, on Spotify or through our website. It’s independent, commercial-free and member-led with feature interviews, breaking news, Ken’s Football Show, The Politics Podcast, and lots of added extras. You’ll also be supporting the development of our longer-form work, such as our international series’ ‘Where Is George Gibney?’ and Stakeknife.

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82,000 in the stadium and 1.6m watching on RTE - there's never been an event like this in Irish sport.

We look back on a mesmerising but surreal evening in Croke Park with Sinead O'Carroll and Malachy Clerkin. We discuss Katie's insights on Katie', grabbing the mic, how boxing was always the easy bit, and if she is 100% definitely retiring.

Plus there's Westlife, the Croker crowd, seeing both sides of boxing, walk-on music and doing it her way.

Monday’s shows are free to all. To listen to all our programming throughout the rest of the week, join the Second Captains World Service. There’s no contracts, no hidden fees and shows can be listened to on all good podcast apps, on Spotify or through our website. It’s independent, commercial-free and member-led with feature interviews, breaking news, Ken’s Football Show, The Politics Podcast, and lots of added extras. You’ll also be supporting the development of our longer-form work, such as our international series’ ‘Where Is George Gibney?’ and Stakeknife.

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For players new to La Liga, there's no better way to get people's attention than scoring the winner against Real Madrid. Betis Troy has lift-off - but did he really RAM Jose Mourinho's historic quotes back down his throat, or is it possible that the interpersonal rivalry element of this story has been exaggerated for dramatic purposes?

We talk about Arsenal's dominant victory against Chelsea, and why, despite Michael Carrick's words, it shouldn't be much consolation for Manchester United that Everton's two goals were miracle-strikes.

Miguel Delaney joins us to talk about Arsenal-Chelsea and related issues. Did we see new layers to Mikel Arteta's side? Should they have done the deal for Morgan Rogers or will it ultimately prove wiser to wait? And can the PL cash bubble really keep inflating forever?
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