the Debrief

Angus and Ben welcome in The Athletic’s Raphael Honigstein as they discuss the amazing journey of Jude Bellingham, who continues to have a tremendous season for Real Madrid. From his early days in Birmingham, to his development at Borussia Dortmund, they talk about what makes him so special as such a young age.

Fabrizio Romano drops in to talk about Mauricio Pochettino’s status at Chelsea, Destiny Udogie’s new deal at Spurs, Luis Suarez reuniting with Lionel Messi and more.

Why Arsenal’s Edu thoroughly deserves director award

We’ll start with Arsenal, who enjoyed a dramatic late victory away to Luton Town last night, and who have also been winning off the pitch as their sporting director Edu was recognised with an award for the best director at the Golden Boy ceremony.

Edu’s award is absolutely deserved, in my opinion. He’s probably underrated but he’s done an excellent job at Arsenal. Extending contracts of top players like Saka, Saliba, Martinelli, Odegaard and many others; signing super stars like Declan Rice with perfect strategy; players love him and the daily contact at the ground.

Also, he protected Arteta in difficult moments at the beginning. Arsenal are a fantastic football club now after a difficult few years at the end of the Arsene Wenger era. It’s now a wonderful project and Edu deserves a good part of the credit for that.

Staying with Arsenal, I’ve also had some fans asking me about links with Kenan Yildiz - this very talented youngster at Juventus has at least ten top clubs from around Europe following him, but it’s just scouting, nothing else. He only signed a new deal with Juve around six weeks ago, so there are no talks or negotiations, nothing happening for January. He’s happy at Juventus, so I wouldn’t pay too much attention to links with Arsenal or any other clubs right now.

Angus and Ben are joined by Jonathan Wilson, creator of The Blizzard and Columnist for The Guardian, to talk about the ongoing investigation into Manchester City’s 115 infractions against the Premier League. Just how long will it take for verdict to be rendered and how severe will the penalty actually be?

We’re also joined by Fabrizio Romano each week and on this edition he dives into the futures of Jadon Sancho and Marcus Rashford at Manchester United and the two moves that Newcastle is trying to make in January. Plus, who is Stuttgart’s Sehrou Guirassy, and why are so many teams after him?

Will we see a busy January from Saudi clubs?

I think the kind of transfer activity we see from clubs in the Saudi Pro League is not going to be as crazy as it was in the summer, so I don’t expect super big names to move in January. It’s going to be more about opportunities, so maybe players that are unhappy at their club could find a possibility to go to Saudi and be part of that project.

I don’t think super big names will move in the January window and the mission for Saudi clubs is going to be more quiet for January and then stronger for the summer transfer window.

Al Hilal have the problem of Neymar’s injury, and they are always very attentive to the market, so I expect them to have some contacts in the next weeks to look at opportunities. Still, at the moment, I’m not aware of anything close or advanced, so the feeling I’m getting is that it's going to take some time. Again, we should keep an eye on players who are not so happy at their clubs, so that could be the solution for Al Hilal.

After spending hundreds of millions of pounds last summer to lure star players from Europe and pledging billions to fortify the professional league, what will Saudi clubs look to do in in the January Transfer Window?

And, Fabrizio Romano weighs in on the likes of KDB, Raphael Varane and Luka Modric leaving for Saudi Arabia and the ongoing Victor Osimhen transfer saga.

Angus and Ben are joined by former Manchester City Financial Advisor Stefan Borson to discuss the aftermath of the Everton points deduction and what it could signal for Manchester City and Chelsea down the line. Is relegation a real possibility for those two behemoths?

And…Fabrizio Romano dishes on rumours of Antoine Griezmann joining Manchester United, Bruno leaving for Saudi Arabia and the ten-club race for Club Brugge’s Antonio Nusa.

Former FIFA Referees Christina Unkel and Mark Halsey weigh-in on how the VAR system and its application can be fixed. Is it time for a hard reset? They give a unique, inside perspective on the topic.

Also, Fabrizio Romano is with us as always and will hit on United’s search for a centre-back, Alphonso Davies to Real Madrid and Aaron Ramsdale’s potential exit out of North London.

We are joined by the legendary Guillem Balague - the only man to release an authorised biography of Lionel Messi. What does the future have in store for Leo now that he’s won his eighth Ballon d’Or? Balague also dishes on Inter Miami, Copa America, the Barcelona Board Room and maybe even another World Cup in 2026.

Fabrizio Romano takes his normal spot — hitting on all of the biggest transfer rumours, including Marcus Rashford’s future at United and a potential deal for Kevin de Bruyne to Saudi Arabia.

Angus and Ben are joined by James Benge of CBS to discuss Arsenal and Tottenham's incredible starts, how they will react in January, how long they can stay unbeaten and where they'll finish in the table.

Fabrizio Romano drops in to discuss Erik Ten Hag's future at Manchester United and Eddie Nketiah's potential move from Arsenal in January.

This week's episode of The Debrief is a Live Q&A with Angus Scott as host, Ben Jacobs and Jonothan Johnson. They tackle the very latest on Sir Jim Ratcliffe's ownership stake in United, Mbappe's future at PSG, the purchase of Everton and much more. And of course, as always, transfer guru Fabrizio Romano joins the show to hit on the very latest news an rumours around the football world.