Second Captains

The opening weekend hasn't even finished and Ken already wants to walk back Thursday's top four predictions. Is he getting carried away by one 90 minute Newcastle demolition job? The next couple of games will tell us a lot. 

We talk about the continued transfer frenzy as Chelsea aim to follow up their signing of Moises Caicedo by adding Romeo Lavia - who Liverpool have forlornly gone back to - and, it says here, Michael Olise. 

Rich Jolly and Jack Pitt-Brooke join us to talk about the opening weekend. Do Chelsea have just the right type of squad to bring the best out of Mauricio Pochettino? Can anyone understand how Chelsea can afford what they're doing? And how do Spurs really feel about selling Harry Kane to Bayern? 

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Whether you're ready for it or not, the Premier League is back with Burnley taking on the treble winners Manchester City tomorrow night. We caught up with Jonathan Wilson and John Brewin to ask all the important questions ahead of the upcoming season - Can anyone lay a glove on City? Is England's Declan Rice the man to help Arsenal kick on even further? And can anyone make as big a mess of it as Ken did with last season’s predictions?

Plus, it's been a roaringly successful Synth Week on the World Service with the listener entries pouring in.

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Caelan Doris was the clear man of the match for Ireland at the weekend, but the most important performance came from outhalf Jack Crowley. His season ended well with Munster, and he continued that good form against Italy. Is he now ahead of Ross Byrne?

We chat to Shane Horgan about World Cup warm ups, trying too hard, the back three contenders, dangerous Scots and how Farrell, Catt and O'Connell's horrible experiences at World Cups might be shaping the easy breezy approach this time around.

Johnny Sexton will play in a training match against Portugal this week but because of his ban it is most definitely not a game of rugby he is taking part in.

Plus there's hat trick hero Amy O'Connor, the. battle of Bayonne and peno shootout drama.

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We have entered the individual award part of the GAA Season aka ''silly season''. Where once this was all we had to get us through the dark winter, now we have the Club Championship and sure it's not even winter! But those factors aside it seems that individualism still holds a powerful candle in the collective world of the GAA. As we saw this week when tweets and talk turned to the POTY debate.

The other great culture war that is this summer tearing at the fabric of our society revolves around two blockbuster films of no semblance to each other. Barbie and Oppenheimer. We sent Ken to watch and review one of them.

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Ireland's World Cup campaign came to an end with a clean sheet, a point, and a public disagreement between the manager and captain.  

Gavin Cummiskey joins us from Brisbane to report on Pauw's last press conference of this World Cup, in which she revealed details of a heated in-game exchange with Katie McCabe about who should get substituted next. As for Katie's side of this developing story - she's not giving much away...

We also talk to Oluwashina Okeleji, who looks forward to Nigeria's likely second-round encounter with England.

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Dublin are All-Ireland champions again, and if this was James McCarthy, Mick Fitzsimons and Stephen Cluxton's ninth medal, it was celebrated as if it was their first. 

Our crack analysis team of Michael Murphy and Paul Flynn talk to us about why this meant so much to Dublin, their mentality monsters, and how the day went so badly wrong for David Clifford. We also discuss Jack McCaffrey's impact, Brian Fenton's composure and Mick Fitzsimons' ultimate vindication. 

Plus there's the BBC's GAA outreach programme, a celeb-laden halftime show, tactile McDevitt, and taking a whack on the cheekbone for the Dubs.

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What's your man Early like? A regular question posed to the non Ken Early members of the Second Captains team. In this week's Taster episode Eoin and Murph give some thoughts on their colleague - mainly that he's a bloody Pedant.

While Oisin McConville joined our front-liners Paul Flynn and Michael Murphy for a very special All Ireland final preview.

We also tripped back in time to 1979 to hear how a young Ronnie Whelan - then playing for Home Farm - led out an Irish team against the Basque Country in what was a very hot political atmosphere.

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After Brazil defeated Panama 4-0 with lashings of jogo bonito Ken has a stat from the opening 15 WWC matches that may surprise you.

Elsewhere, it's reported today that Saudi Arabia would like to spend a billion euros to have Kylian Mbappe grace the Pro League for a single season. How to make sense of this monetary madness? 

We talk about the Saudi bid with reference to a recent piece by the historian Quinn Slobodian which took a big-picture view of the Kingdom's bid for the future. Can those who profit from climate change.... save us from climate change?

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Limerick's four-in-a-row was secured in Croke Park yesterday in thrilling style, and Jamie Wall and Malachy Clerkin are with us today to answer a question being more and more insistently asked - are Limerick the best ever?

We congratulate Ken on Limerick's success while he studies the hurling history books and explains why Kilkenny's Cody era is not all it was cracked up to be.

And we look at some extraterrestrial performances in the Tour de France and the madness of rain delays in cricket.

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The World Cup in Australia and New Zealand kicked off this week, and Ireland are down but certainly not out after an opening-day loss to the hosts. Our man, Ken Early, couldn't be there in person, but he joined us from our studios, huddled around a not-so-tiny TV to watch the game. Meanwhile, Sinéad O'Carroll was on the ground in Sydney, capturing the mood music surrounding the game and the shock in the press box as news broke about Australia losing their star player.

Closer to home, it's All Ireland Hurling Final weekend with Limerick and Kilkenny set to clash in what could be some inclement weather conditions. Much to the glee of our senior analyst Jamie Wall.

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