The Second Captains Podcast

We're just one week out from the World Cup and we're starting to feel it.

First stop for Ken is Mexico City early next week, but before he went he gave us a special World Cup edition of KenCall!

This week we also had Tim Vickery on Ancelotti's source code for coaching and how old injured legends Neymar and Messi will fare in the heat. Plus there's Mbappe's defensive stats, who Ken is supporting and Madrid men stirring the pot.

Click the player at the top of the page to play this best of show. To listen to all our World Cup programming throughout the rest of the summer, join the Second Captains World Service. It costs 5 euro a month plus VAT, there’s no contracts, no hidden fees, no sign up fee, no ads 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.
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Arsenal went to Budapest surfing a tidal wave of hope and joy, and finished losing on penalties after one shot on target in more than two hours of play. Less than Inter managed losing 5-0 last year, and less than Arsenal themselves managed against Barcelona in 2006, when they played most of the match with ten men.

Did Mikel Arteta's best-laid plans nearly come off - or did the plan ultimately get between them and the chance of a first Champions League title?

We also talk about Arne Slot, whose two seasons at Liverpool came to an end a few hours before kick-off in Budapest. What he did right, what he did wrong, the things that happened that were beyond his control, and the things that didn't happen that maybe weren't. Can the apparent successor, Andoni Iraola, realistically do any better without major reinforcements to the squad?
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Welcome to fight week on the Second Captains world service! There was a Donnybrook in Dalyer, the McGuinness melee in Kerry and Keano and Bruno fighting on the internet. Plus we have a champions league show tomorrow and Monday, and coming very soon, the World Cup in Canada/USA/Mexico which will be really weird and really interesting.

Its a fiver to join, it takes 30 seconds, you have instant access to every show we’ve ever done, and all the top stuff coming up such as Ken at the World Cup, the Champions League final, Rory’s majors quest, the URC playoffs, the hurling championship, and the fallout from the McGuinness incident. GO TO secondcaptains.com/join
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The other four Champions Cup finals Leinster lost were all close, winnable and heartbreaking for fans; this defeat to Bordeaux however was over after 20 minutes and deeply concerning for all involved.

We chat to Shane Horgan and Andrew Trimble about all the things that went wrong in Bilbao, and what this means for Leo Cullen, Nienaber and Irish rugby.

And in a weekend of massive games in hurling and gaelic football the Kerry/Donegal half-time brouhaha could yet have long-term repercussions for Jim McGuinness, if the lengthy ban for Dublin's Ger Brennan was anything to go by.
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A day of goodbyes - Pep Guardiola, Bernardo Silva, John Stones, Mohamed Salah, Andy Robertson, Seamus Coleman, West Ham United.

Ken gives his Premier League team of the season, and you … to be honest, you won’t be surprised by too many of his picks.

Dion Fanning and John Brewin join us to talk about the end of the Premier League season. How good a season was it? Does Pep Guardiola leave Manchester City having proved himself the greatest manager of all time? And who is most likely to step up and challenge the new Arsenal supremacy?
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