The Sports Agents

Premiership Rugby is back — and it might just be the toughest league in English sport.

Brutal collisions, fierce rivalries and some of the biggest names in rugby. On this episode of The Sports Agents, we go inside the Gallagher PREM to discover what makes English club rugby so unforgiving — and why this season is one you cannot ignore.

England Captain and British & Irish Lions star Maro Itoje, Scotland superstar Finn Russell and Wales’ Louis Rees-Zammit join us to reveal what it really takes to survive — and thrive — at the very top of the game.

If you think you know Premiership Rugby, think again.

Timestamp:

0:00 Intro

2:30 Maro Itoje & Finn Russell

17:55: Louis Rees-Zammit

18:55 NFL experience

23:17 Playing for Wales

27:20 REALITY of Prem Rugby

30:45 Dan McFarland - Newcastle Red Bull Head Coach

31:13 What will 'Red Bull Rugby' look like?

32:25 Big Data in Rugby

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Executive Producer: Adonis Pratsides

Senior Producer: David Finch

Video Producer: Sam Trudgill

Social Media Editor: Jasmine Wissart

Tom Hughes is Editor for The News Agents podcast network

Vicky Etchells is the Commissioning Editor for Global

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The story of Hull City owner Acun Ilicali is one of the most extraordinary in the Premier League...

TV star turned media mogul turned football club owner, Acun is a force of nature — and in this special episode of The Sports Agents, Gabby Logan and Mark Chapman meet the man himself, live and direct from Istanbul.

This is the story of a man who lost his parents in a tragic car accident, saw his marriage collapse, faced financial ruin in his early twenties — and somehow emerged to create a global media empire.

Acun tells us about the energy of the people which drew him to Hull City, how he inherited a club divided from its supporters, and how he set about rebuilding that bond.

It’s been a wild ride for Acun & Hull City, from surviving relegation to League One on goal difference to winning promotion to the top tier and upsetting the Premier League’s big boys - expect passion, energy and the ultimate underdog story in this very special episode of The Sports Agents.

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Executive Producer: Adonis Pratsides

Senior Producer: David Finch

Video Producer: Sam Trudgill

Social Media Editor: Jasmine Wissart

Tom Hughes is Editor for The News Agents podcast network

Vicky Etchells is the Commissioning Editor for Global

You can listen to this episode on Alexa - just say "Alexa, ask Global Player to play The Sports Agents".

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VAR 'fury' felt like it may have finally peaked this weekend...

A Manchester derby dogged by refereeing controversy just 24 hours after Mikel Arteta gave 'Pro Ref' both barrels after Arsenal’s win against Sunderland on a weekend when Premier League refereeing seemed to be in crisis.

Gabby, Mark & Nedum get into the fallout from the latest VAR disaster and also look at the problems facing Man United after their defeat to 10 man Man City left Michael Carrick’s side with just four points from four games.

There’s also athletics after ‘The ultimate’ World Championships saw most British athletes not named Josh Kerr come up short - and Gabby weighs in on Sydney Sweeney's highly controversial sports gambling advert after female athletes at this weekend's Ultimate Championships showed everyone "what women in sport look like".

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Executive Producer: Adonis Pratsides

Senior Producer: David Finch

Video Producer: Sam Trudgill

Social Media Editor: Jasmine Wissart

Tom Hughes is Editor for The News Agents podcast network

Vicky Etchells is the Commissioning Editor for Global

You can listen to this episode on Alexa - just say "Alexa, ask Global Player to play The Sports Agents".

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In this special bonus interview on The Sports Agents, Sunderland captain Granit Xhaka joins Mark & Nedum to reflect on a remarkable first season back in the Premier League as they prepare to face his old club, Arsenal & return to European competition for the first time in 52 years this week.

Granit reflects on *that* moment in 2019 when he was booed off by his own supporters in North London - and Mikel Arteta's crucial role in a redemption story that took him to Germany where he became a Champion with Bayer Leverkusen.

Whether he had mixed feelings seeing Arsenal lift the title in May and how close he really came to leaving Sunderland this summer to reunite with Xabi Alonso at Chelsea.

Plus, if coaching is in his future, what good dressing room culture actually looks like and if leaders are born or made?

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Executive Producer: Adonis Pratsides

Senior Producer: David Finch

Video Producer: Sam Trudgill

Social Media Editor: Jasmine Wissart

Tom Hughes is Editor for The News Agents podcast network

Vicky Etchells is the Commissioning Editor for Global

You can listen to this episode on Alexa - just say "Alexa, ask Global Player to play The Sports Agents".

👕 The Sports Agents have merch! You can buy yours now: https://store.global.com/collections/the-sports-agents

Conor Benn’s super fight against Ryan Garcia in Las Vegas has brought the issue of Performance Enhancing Drugs in sport back into the spotlight.

While both boxers deny ever having taken PEDs, both have failed drugs tests and it remains a complex and emotive issue, particularly in potentially lethal sports such as boxing.

On this episode of The Sports Agents we have the whole conversation and not just the convenient parts of it...

Larry Olubamiwo was a British heavyweight contender before he failed a drugs test and he became a pariah. Larry joins Mark & Nedum to talk about why he chose to use PEDs, how he got away with it for so long and why he wouldn’t change a thing.

Boxing journalist Tris Dixon joins the conversation as the guys reflect on why boxers who fail tests continue to be rewarded with million-dollar purses?

You can see Larry in his new film Tales from the Trap, check out the trailer here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9YnxKj-ydg

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Executive Producer: Adonis Pratsides

Senior Producer: David Finch

Video Producer: Sam Trudgill

Social Media Editor: Jasmine Wissart

Tom Hughes is Editor for The News Agents podcast network

Vicky Etchells is the Commissioning Editor for Global

You can listen to this episode on Alexa - just say "Alexa, ask Global Player to play The Sports Agents".

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Mikel Arteta’s managerial rivalry with Xabi Alonso got off to a pulsating start as Arsenal edged Chelsea in a thriller at the Emirates.

Is this the opening salvo in a new managerial rivalry which will light up the Premier League for years to come? Are Arteta & Alonso a younger, better looking version of Fergie & Wenger?

Well no. Not according to Nedum Onuoha.

On this episode of The Sports Agents Gabby, Mark, & Nedum asses the title credentials of Chelsea and Arsenal while Nedum reveals why the Alonso x Arteta rivalry needs a bit more time to cook and why Mikel Arteta might not be hanging around North London for too much longer anyway...

Elsewhere, The Athletic's James Horncastle joins to spill the tea on a high end cocktail party which launched a record breaking Premier League spending spree?

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Executive Producer: Adonis Pratsides

Senior Producer: David Finch

Video Producer: Samuel Trudgill

Social Media Editor: Jasmine Wissart

Tom Hughes is Editor for The News Agents podcast network

Vicky Etchells is the Commissioning Editor for Global

You can listen to this episode on Alexa - just say "Alexa, ask Global Player to play The Sports Agents".

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Not long ago, women’s boxing was a different sport.

Banned in most countries and ridiculed in the rest, female fighters fought in the shadows.

Until one night in 1996.

That night Deirdre Gogarty, a painfully shy Irish woman and Christy Martin, a raging knockout artist from the coalfields of West Virginia spent 12 unforgettable minutes in each other's company and changed everything.

Their fight put women’s boxing on the map and it was the fight that inspired boxing icon Katie Taylor to pursue her dream.

As Katie Taylor prepares to bring the curtain down on her incredible career, Gabby & Mark are joined by her hero, Deirdre Gogarty to tell the story of the rise of women’s boxing - a fight for recognition which takes us from pub car parks and basement bars to Croke Park and 80,000 adoring fans.

As Mark says: “That’s one of the best interviews we’ve ever done”

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Executive Producer: Adonis Pratsides

Senior Producer: David Finch

Video Producer: Sam Trudgill

Social Media Editor: Jasmine Wissart

Tom Hughes is Editor for The News Agents podcast network

Vicky Etchells is the Commissioning Editor for Global

You can listen to this episode on Alexa - just say "Alexa, ask Global Player to play The Sports Agents".

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As we enter the final day of the summer transfer window, Everton fans had threatened to “riot” if their club sold local academy graduate Harrison Armstrong... Ultimately the club’s billionaire owners bowed to the backlash and were forced into a U-turn, Armstrong will stay at his boyhood club, but at what cost?

Gabby, Mark & Nedum discuss fan power and whether or not a club's supporters should be able to dictate a player’s career or influence who their club buys and sells?

Elsewhere Newcastle are flying after a summer of upheaval which seemed to spell doom for the Magpies. So, how has new boss Matthias Jaissle got it so right while PL rivals keep getting it wrong?

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Executive Producer: Adonis Pratsides

Senior Producer: David Finch

Video Producer: Samuel Trudgill

Social Media Editor: Jasmine Wissart

Tom Hughes is Editor for The News Agents podcast network

Vicky Etchells is the Commissioning Editor for Global

You can listen to this episode on Alexa - just say "Alexa, ask Global Player to play The Sports Agents".

👕 The Sports Agents have merch! You can buy yours now: https://store.global.com/collections/the-sports-agents

An explosive statement from Atletico Madrid described themselves as the "only victims" in the ongoing transfer saga surrounding their wantaway striker Julian Alvarez. Ian Wright has publicly criticised the way Arsenal have handled Gabriel Martinelli's reported exit this summer... but does every transfer saga NEED to cast someone as the villain?

British football Agent Saif Rubie, who handled Yoane Wissa's controversial transfer to Newcastle last summer, joins Gabby and Nedum to discuss the narratives that are spun and where the blame lies in reality.

And later, we're joined by Frank Warren to reflect on the story of British boxing’s next great Heavyweight hope - 21-year-old Moses Itauma - who could become the second youngest heavyweight world champion in history, behind only Mike Tyson this weekend.

Plus, reaction to the PFA awards and why Nedum declines to attend.

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Executive Producer: Adonis Pratsides

Senior Producer: David Finch

Video Producer: Samuel Trudgill

Social Media Editor: Jasmine Wissart

Tom Hughes is Editor for The News Agents podcast network

Vicky Etchells is the Commissioning Editor for Global

You can listen to this episode on Alexa - just say "Alexa, ask Global Player to play The Sports Agents".

👕 The Sports Agents have merch! You can buy yours now: https://store.global.com/collections/the-sports-agents

The Premier League is back and there were plenty of shocks in the opening weekend, not least Spurs being beaten out of sight by Brentford and Hull City taking Manchester United apart.

But who has more to worry about: Manchester United’s Michael Carrick or Spurs’ Robert De Zerbi?

Gabby, Nedum & Mark get stuck into two very different problems and two very different ways to handle an opening day shock defeat: the Michael Carrick method of keep calm and carry on and Roberto De Zerbi’s slightly more fiery approach of publicly throwing players under the bus who are making you look bad.

Also on the show, another shock defeat saw Aston Villa thumped 4-0 at Brighton. Less than nine months ago Unai Emery’s side were title contenders now they’ve sold their best players, more want to leave and Villa are staring down the barrel of a tough season - how did this happen and what does it say about the Premier League if only a few teams can afford to try and win it?

Elsewhere we celebrate Liverpool v Newcastle the greatest head to head in Premier League history, Nedum gives us the inside scoop on an iconic Premier League penalty and 18 year old wonder kid Ayyoub Bouaddi is in the spotlight as his move to Manchester City takes a step closer.

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Executive Producer: Adonis Pratsides

Senior Producer: David Finch

Video Producer: Samuel Trudgill

Social Media Editor: Jasmine Wissart

Tom Hughes is Editor for The News Agents podcast network

Vicky Etchells is the Commissioning Editor for Global

You can listen to this episode on Alexa - just say "Alexa, ask Global Player to play The Sports Agents".

👕 The Sports Agents have merch! You can buy yours now: https://store.global.com/collections/the-sports-agents