Libero

By LiberoSociety & Culture Sports Soccer

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42
Followers
Typical duration
58 min
per episode
If it hooks
56%
finish an episode

Based on Podcast App listening data

Libero episodes

March 13 Libero 104 | Where’s Your Famous Atmosphere? The Premier League’s Sanitised Matchday
Atmosphere is one of the Premier League’s biggest selling points to broadcasters, but ask anyone who regularly goes to games and they will tell you that atmospheres in English grounds are in stark decline. If we do accept that atmospheres are getting worse, why is that?
On today’s episode John Brewin, Jack Pitt-Brooke and James Horncastle try to unpack what exactly we mean when we talk about a ‘good atmosphere’, and whether we are taking a selective view of English football's vibrant year gone by.
P1: (02:41)
P2: (31:19)
Produced by: Tom Bassam
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Music: Kid Kodi - Blue Dot Sessions

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56 min
March 10 Libero 103 | What Era Was Peak Champions League?
Libero might like knocking the Champions League, but even we know there's nothing like European knock-out football for compelling drama. But with six English clubs in the last 16 and Manchester City playing Real Madrid, again, is this really as exciting as it should be? Is this as good as it once was? This week on Libero, Miguel Delaney, Tariq Panja and Rory Smith ask when the Champions League was at its best, what it was that made it so special, and whether that can be recaptured.
P1: (10:45)
P2: (37:11)
Produced by: Tom Bassam
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Music: Kid Kodi - Blue Dot Sessions

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58 min
March 06 Libero 102 | Trying To Make Sense Of The Business Of Football
Every year football's rich and powerful gather at a West London hotel to do deals, shake hands and talk about the game in a way would be quite unfamiliar to anyone not in the posh seats at 3pm on a Saturday. Several Liberi were in attendance at the recent FT Business of Football Summit, so they found a quiet corridor to discuss what they'd overheard at the conference, as well as the detachment between those who seek to profit from football and the game itself. You'll hear from Tariq Panja, Rory Smith, Miguel Delaney and James Horncastle. There's also a fabulous cameo from The Mirror's John Cross.
P1: (00:27)
P2: (25:03)
Produced by: Tom Bassam, who apologises for the lack of proper video on this episode.
Email in via [email protected]
Subscribe to our YouTube channel @liberopod
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Music: Kid Kodi - Blue Dot Sessions

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49 min
March 03 Libero 101 | Spurs In Peril... No Longer Too Big To Fail?
In recent years it has felt as if the Premier League was permanently stratified, with the poor teams unable to win and the rich teams unable to lose. But Tottenham Hotspur have the ninth biggest revenue in Europe and they are at increasing risk of going down.
On today’s episode Jack Pitt-Brooke, John Brewin and Jonathan Wilson discuss the possibility of Spurs’ relegation from the top flight. Jonathan tells the story of their relegation in the 1970s, and the team ask whether that is comparable to a big team going down in 2026.
Because if Spurs do go - and they still have a four point gap - what would it mean for English football? Would it tell us that the Premier League is in fact starting to de-stratify?
P1: (05:39)
P2: (27:34)
Produced by: Tom Bassam
Email in via [email protected]
Subscribe to our YouTube channel @liberopod
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Music: Kid Kodi - Blue Dot Sessions

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58 min
February 27 Libero 100 | Anxious Arsenal And The Definition Of A Bottle Job
It is – it turns out – quite difficult to pin down an accurate definition of what 'bottling it' means and, therefore, which teams can be fairly described as having committed this failure of will in the past. Miguel Delaney, Rory Smith and Jonathan Wilson give it their best shot at outlining the true meaning of the phrase and discuss the most famous 'bottle jobs' in football history. With the nerve of Mikel Arteta's Arsenal being severely tested as they seek to end a 26-year wait for a Premier League title, are we about to see another egregious example of 'bottling it' or would it be unfair to apply that description to this Gunners side? All covered in a landmark episode of Libero.
P1: (02:43)
P2: (27:46)
Produced by: Tom Bassam
Email in via [email protected]
Subscribe to our YouTube channel @liberopod
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Music: Kid Kodi - Blue Dot Sessions

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1 hr 1 min
February 24 Libero 099 | Has Jose Mourinho Burned His Bridges At Real Madrid?
Jose Mourinho will take his Benfica team back to Real Madrid on Wednesday night, trying to get through to the last-16 of the Champions League.
It is now almost 13 years since Mourinho left Real Madrid but his three year spell there remains one of the most interesting periods in modern football. Never before or since has Florentino Perez handed over the keys to a coach so determined to work against his players rather than with them.
On today’s episode John Brewin, Miguel Delaney and Jack Pitt-Brooke look back at Mourinho’s time at Real, the triumph of the 2011-12 La Liga win and the toxic descent in his final year. Was this the peak of his career? Or was it the turning point before it all started to go wrong?
P1: (06:26)
P2: (36:48)
Produced by: Tom Bassam
Email in via [email protected]
Subscribe to our YouTube channel @liberopod
Follow us on X @podcast_libero
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Music: Kid Kodi - Blue Dot Sessions

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1 hr 2 min
February 20 Libero 098 | Juventus, Benfica And The Plight of Europe's Forgotten Clubs
It’s Champions League punishment round week, which means clubs who were among the biggest and best in Europe 10 years ago are slogging it out to make it through to the last-16.
The question on today’s show is what these sides - especially Juventus, Benfica and Borussia Dortmund - can realistically achieve in a European game that is now stacked against them.
Jack Pitt-Brooke, Tariq Panja and James Horncastle discuss whether they ever build a competitive team to last, or whether they will just get picked off by the vultures at the first sign of success. And if they can’t hope to win any more, are they left with a sense of identity that they can fall back on?
P1: (10:28)
P2: (31:50)
Produced by: Tom Bassam
Email in via [email protected]
Subscribe to our YouTube channel @liberopod
Follow us on X @podcast_libero
Follow us on Bluesky @liberopodcast.com
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Music: Kid Kodi - Blue Dot Sessions

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1 hr 3 min
February 17 Libero 097| The Death Of Individualism
In a world where Jack Grealish becomes 'The Rest Station' and Jürgen Klopp insists that no playmaker can be as effective as counter-pressing, it is fair to say that the game's creative geniuses are being marginalised like never before. Has systems football stunted players' ability to think for themselves? Do free spirits have no place in modern tactics? A trio of Libero mavericks, Miguel Delaney, James Horncastle and Jonathan Wilson, attempt some free-thinking to discover the root cause of this troubling trend.
P1: (01:53)
P2: (27:44)
Produced by: Tom Bassam
Email in via [email protected]
Subscribe to our YouTube channel @liberopod
Follow us on X @podcast_libero
Follow us on Bluesky @liberopodcast.com
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Music: Kid Kodi - Blue Dot Sessions

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53 min
February 12 Libero 096 | Lads, It’s Tottenham: The Fall Of Thomas Frank
Another week, another manager departed from the big chair at a traditional English heavyweight. It turns out Dr Tottenham does not have a cure for the club's own malaise and so Thomas Frank must go. Are Spurs trapped in a gilded cage of being the Premier League's sixth biggest club? Are the demands in north London unreasonable? Where will the Lewis family turn for their first appointment of the post-Daniel Levy era? John Brewin, Rory Smith and Jonathan Wilson pick through the issues.
P1: (02:00)
P2: (31:15)
Produced by: Tom Bassam
Email in via [email protected]
Subscribe to our YouTube channel @liberopod
Follow us on X @podcast_libero
Follow us on Bluesky @liberopodcast.com
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Music: Kid Kodi - Blue Dot Sessions

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58 min
February 10 Libero 095 | Slot And Guardiola: End Game?
Resisting the temptation to get distracted by VAR, John Brewin, Jack Pitt-Brooke and Rory Smith discuss the more immediate consequences of Manchester City’s win at Anfield. It was a result that leaves Arne Slot with no margin for error as he tries to keep his job, but does it also tell us something about Pep Guardiola’s future? Is his new-found activist streak evidence that he’s in his final few months in the Premier League? And if he is, what will we talk about once a fortnight on Libero once he goes?
P1: (06:28)
P2: (36:32)
Produced by: Tom Bassam
Email in via [email protected]
Subscribe to our YouTube channel @liberopod
Follow us on X @podcast_libero
Follow us on Bluesky @liberopodcast.com
Follow us on Instagram @liberopod
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Music: Kid Kodi - Blue Dot Sessions

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1 hr

About Libero

From the publisher's feed

A podcast about football, the least important of the most important things, featuring John Brewin, Miguel Delaney, James Horncastle, Tariq Panja, Jack Pitt-Brooke, Rory Smith and Jonathan Wilson.