It is now more than 20 years since Roman Abramovich's arrival at Chelsea begun the Premier League's original 'big four era', but with Manchester City seemingly about to move out of the picture and Tottenham falling back with the pack, the hierarchy is shifting again. On this episode Jack Pitt-Brooke, Jonathan Wilson, and Tariq Panja ask whether the dominance of Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool in the century's first decade was a good thing or whether the Premier League has never recovered from financial ruptures it caused. Plus, what will the competition's future be with opportunities opening up at the top? P1: (00:44) P2: (35:21) --- Libero is going live again! This time we're doing two of the most important of the least important live shows, one in Leeds on 18th November and a second in London on 20th November. Tickets are on sale right now, the link for the show in ⁠Leeds is here⁠ and the link for ⁠London is here⁠. If you sign up to the Special Ones tier of ⁠SC Libero⁠ you claim 20% off the ticket price for the live show. Join the most important of the least important membership clubs right here: ⁠liberopodcast.com⁠. — Produced by: Tom Bassam Email in via ⁠[email protected]⁠ Subscribe to our YouTube channel ⁠@liberopod⁠ Join our Discord ⁠@Libero Podcast⁠ Follow us on X ⁠@podcast_libero⁠ Follow us on Bluesky ⁠@liberopodcast.com⁠ Follow us on Instagram ⁠@liberopod⁠ Follow us on TikTok ⁠@liberopod⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The death spiral has begun for Michael Carrick at Manchester United. It now looks inevitable that he will become the latest poor soul sacrificed at the altar of a huge football club that looks incapable of fixing the deep rooted structural issues that deny any hope of a return to former glories. John Brewin, Jonathan Wilson and Jack Pitt-Brooke ask how much of this is Carrick's fault and what has precipitated his rapid fall from the highs of last season's resurgence. Attention then turns to the real causes of United's waning power, the flawed ownership of Glazers and the false dawn of Sir Jim Ratcliffe's arrival. P1: (02:11) P2: (30:24) --- Libero is going live again! This time we're doing two of the most important of the least important live shows, one in Leeds on 18th November and a second in London on 20th November. Tickets are on sale right now, the link for the show in Leeds is here and the link for London is here. If you sign up to the Special Ones tier of SC Libero you claim 20% off the ticket price for the live show. Join the most important of the least important membership clubs right here: liberopodcast.com. — Produced by: Tom Bassam Email in via [email protected] Subscribe to our YouTube channel @liberopod Join our Discord @Libero Podcast Follow us on X @podcast_libero Follow us on Bluesky @liberopodcast.com Follow us on Instagram @liberopod Follow us on TikTok @liberopod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Saturday 3pm blackout is one of the most distinctive aspects of English football. The games in that timeslot are televised around the world, but not in this country, the result of a rule that has stood for more than 70 years. The theory is that by keeping them off TV, more fans will go and watch their local teams. On today's episode Rory Smith, John Brewin and Jack Pitt-Brooke discuss whether the blackout works, in protecting attendances further down the pyramid. And whether it is still worth bothering with in the modern age? Given how much people pay for TV subscriptions do they deserve to have every game at their fingertips? And can the ruling survive in a world where it feels as if everything is for sale? P1: (01:33) P2: (30:58) --- Libero is going live again! This time we're doing two of the most important of the least important live shows, one in Leeds on 18th November and a second in London on 20th November. Tickets are on sale right now, the link for the show in Leeds is here and the link for London is here. If you sign up to the Special Ones tier of SC Libero you claim 20% off the ticket price for the live show. Join the most important of the least important membership clubs right here: liberopodcast.com. — Produced by: Tom Bassam Email in via [email protected] Subscribe to our YouTube channel @liberopod Join our Discord @Libero Podcast Follow us on X @podcast_libero Follow us on Bluesky @liberopodcast.com Follow us on Instagram @liberopod Follow us on TikTok @liberopod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Ballon d’Or, the award Jonathan Wilson despises most. Our voteless trio discuss the merits of a shortlist that includes Rory Smith favourite Julian Quinones and ponders why the race is so open this year. What does it say about how we consume football? How do we weight individual success? Why shouldn't Fabian Ruiz collect the big gold gong at the London Palladium? Join James Horncastle, Wilson and Smith, AKA the journalists France Football overlooked for the voting panel in Italy, England and Scotland, to find out why Kylian Mbappe's fingerprints will not be all over an award that presumably had to be moved from Paris for its own safety. P1: (07:49) P2: (32:20) --- Libero is going live again! This time we're doing two of the most important of the least important live shows, one in Leeds on 18th November and a second in London on 20th November. Tickets are on sale right now, the link for the show in Leeds is here and the link for London is here. If you sign up to the Special Ones tier of SC Libero you claim 20% off the ticket price for the live show. Join the most important of the least important membership clubs right here: liberopodcast.com. — Produced by: Tom Bassam Email in via [email protected] Subscribe to our YouTube channel @liberopod Join our Discord @Libero Podcast Follow us on X @podcast_libero Follow us on Bluesky @liberopodcast.com Follow us on Instagram @liberopod Follow us on TikTok @liberopod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Premier League's two smartest, most upwardly-mobile teams, Brighton and Brentford, are currently third and fourth in the table. Is it too soon to talk about Champions League football? What do we actually mean by 'well-run’, and does it go further than just having an algorithm to identify talent? And given the Manchester City scandal, why is the success of these teams potentially so valuable to the league itself? Jack Pitt-Brooke is joined by John Brewin and Rory Smith, plus a special cameo. P1: (02:39) P2: (29:09) Join SC Libero, the most important of the least important membership clubs, now: liberopodcast.com. — Produced by: Tom Bassam Email in via [email protected] Subscribe to our YouTube channel @liberopod Join our Discord @Libero Podcast Follow us on X @podcast_libero Follow us on Bluesky @liberopodcast.com Follow us on Instagram @liberopod Follow us on TikTok @liberopod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

PSG are a superclub backed by an oil state who have come to dominate European football. Not dissimilar then to Manchester City. Yet, ahead of their Champions League meeting this week, one club is facing serious sanctions for breaching financial regulations and the other is not. Like City, the French champions have been accused of inflating related-party sponsorships to fund squad building, but PSG escaped sanctions and now club president Nasser Al-Khelaifi is one of European football's top powerbrokers. So how have the Qataris managed to manoeuvre in a way that their Gulf rivals from the UAE have not? Jonathan Wilson is joined by Miguel Delaney and Tariq Panja. P1: (02:32) P2: (23:00) Join SC Libero, the most important of the least important membership clubs, now: liberopodcast.com. — Produced by: Tom Bassam Email in via [email protected] Subscribe to our YouTube channel @liberopod Join our Discord @Libero Podcast Follow us on X @podcast_libero Follow us on Bluesky @liberopodcast.com Follow us on Instagram @liberopod Follow us on TikTok @liberopod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Manchester City travel to Anfield to face Liverpool on Sunday in a game that marks the first appearance of the boys in sky blue since the Premier League verdict dropped and opened the public's eyes to Sham City. A cauldron, a bear pit, a house of flying Kopperberg bottles, it's fair to say it will be lively on Merseyside. Does it mean more because it's Liverpool? Do the yet-to-be-defined sanctions render the whole thing meaningless? Rory Smith is joined by Jack Pitt-Brooke and John Brewin for this one. P1: (01:12) P2: (32:39) Join SC Libero, the most important of the least important membership clubs, now: liberopodcast.com. — Produced by: Tom Bassam Email in via [email protected] Subscribe to our YouTube channel @liberopod Join our Discord @Libero Podcast Follow us on X @podcast_libero Follow us on Bluesky @liberopodcast.com Follow us on Instagram @liberopod Follow us on TikTok @liberopod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

With Manchester City having been found guilty of systematically cheating their way to Premier League domination, what are the broader implications for competition itself? How robust will one of England's major cultural exports be in the face of its biggest ever scandal? But also has its previously successful formula of light-touch regulation and openness to foreign investment been the Premier League's undoing in the City case? Jack Pitt-Brooke is joined by James Horncastle and Miguel Delaney. P1: (11:20) P2: (27:25) Join SC Libero, the most important of the least important membership clubs, now: liberopodcast.com. — Produced by: Tom Bassam Email in via [email protected] Subscribe to our YouTube channel @liberopod Join our Discord @Libero Podcast Follow us on X @podcast_libero Follow us on Bluesky @liberopodcast.com Follow us on Instagram @liberopod Follow us on TikTok @liberopod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Trying to place the scale of the Manchester City cheating scandal into context is not straightforward given there is almost no comparable event in the history of English football. However other historic scandals do exist, Calciopoli in Italy is one, but there are more closer to home too. Jack Pitt-Brooke, Jonathan Wilson and James Horncastle discuss where the City case lands among all of that, as well as what it means for the club's fans and the integrity of the Premier League. P1: (04:22) P2: (27:33) Join SC Libero, the most important of the least important membership clubs, now: liberopodcast.com. — Produced by: Tom Bassam Email in via [email protected] Subscribe to our YouTube channel @liberopod Join our Discord @Libero Podcast Follow us on X @podcast_libero Follow us on Bluesky @liberopodcast.com Follow us on Instagram @liberopod Follow us on TikTok @liberopod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Manchester City’s epic run of glory lies in ruins after a long awaited verdict reveals the success was built on a mountain of sham contracts and more than £850m in side income from its Abu Dhabi royal overlords. Rory, Jonathan and Tariq try to dissect a ruling for the ages. P1: (00:55) P2: (26:16) -- Produced by: Tom Bassam Email in via [email protected] Subscribe to our YouTube channel @liberopod Join our Discord @Libero Podcast Follow us on X @podcast_libero Follow us on Bluesky @liberopodcast 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