Football Daily - Euro Leagues: All to play for in Italy, Dutch title capitulation & Farewell Modric

Episode Date: May 22, 2025

Steve Crossman is joined by Mina Rzouki, Julien Laurens and Guillem Balague ahead of the end of the season. It’s an exciting final round of fixtures in Italy with Napoli 1 point clear of Inter. Will Antonio Conte stay if Napoli win their second title in three years? How will Inter cope with balancing the Champions League final? Dutch journalist Marcel van der Kraan drops by to talk Ajax – whose nine point lead with seven games to go was overturned by PSV in one of the most sensational title capitulations ever seen in club football – leaving them without a trophy for the third successive season. They also talk about the emotional farewell – is it the new football fashion? And what’s next for Luka Modric after the midfielder announced his departure from Real Madrid. Plus, could Sampdoria actually end up avoiding relegation? In France, there was an amazing escape for Le Havre, who came from behind twice to beat Strasbourg 3-2. And why do newly promoted teams in Europe fare better than in England?TIME CODES: 03:05 – All to play for in Italy 14:46 – Title capitulation for Ajax 26:45 – The emotional goodbye 40:43 – Le Havre’s Great Escape 44:14 – Why do newly promoted teams fair better in Europe than in England? 48:48 – Sampdoria not relegated after all?COMMENTARIES: Saturday 24th May - 1500 - Scottish Cup Final: Aberdeen v Celtic - Sports Extra 3 Saturday 24th May - 1700 - Women’s Champions League Final: Arsenal v Barcelona - BBC Radio 5live Sunday 25th May - 1600 - Premier League: Nottingham Forest v Chelsea - BBC Radio 5live

BBC Sounds music radio podcasts. On the Football Daily Podcasts, the EuroLeagues with Steve Crossman. Listen on BBC Sounds. Hello there, welcome to the EuroLeagues. We have got Guillaume Balague, Julian Laron and Mina Rizuki all with us. Guys, always a pleasure. Do any of you know why tonight is a big night for our show? The last one of this season? No, no, no, no. Hope not. Champions League final show to come next week.

Of course. Good, yeah. You've been booked for that. Don't forget that. No, we've- Is it because our beauty is gonna be on show? Yes, it is, Meena. We've made it to YouTube, guys.

Finally. No longer could YouTube say no to us. So we wave at all the viewers of YouTube. And we can see what Guillaume's wearing and everything. All the hot fashion. That's why you are in front of a Henry Rousseau painting, of course. I've just seen you in the Zoom. I askedau painting, of course, I've just said, I haven't seen you in the zoom. I asked an artist friend of mine, I said, if a woman is in front of

a Henry Rousseau painting in the zoom, what does it mean? He says it means she's playfulness and dreamlike. She likes dreamlike escapism. Wow. Yeah. I think that's quite accurate. What does he say it means when Guillaume Balaguey is wearing a shirt of a thousand colours? What does that tell us? Personality. That's his style, yeah, exactly. Well, actually, we're going to do the whole hour just reflecting on the Europa League final last night.

On Euroleagues. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. We're not even going to mention it. Why would we bother? Although Guillem, I know you did have a little meeting that you wanted to say. I got a message 20 minutes ago from a friend of mine saying, I hear that you were in Bilbao. We follow each other on Instagram, so I must have put something there. Yeah, yeah. I said to him, were you there as well? And he says, yes, I'm Angie's assistant manager. This is Sergio Raimundo. We got the coaching badges together.

And he's been telling me throughout his career where he is, what he's doing. I must have missed the last couple of messages when he said that he's moving to Spurs. So we were on the pitch together, but we didn't cross paths. So this is a sign that I think we end up now knowing far too many people, I think. I also think you should now ask if he'll come on the Euroleagues at some point,

especially now we're also on YouTube. I thought of that. I said I'll give you a call next week. There you go. Well, we'll look forward to that. So we've got loads to get through. We're going to do one of the most sensational title capitulations that we've ever seen in get through. We're going to do one of the most sensational title capitulations that we've ever seen in club football. We'll talk about a possible reprieve for Sampdoria, the amazing escape of Le Havre. We'll also do a bit on kind of the new football fashion of the big emotional farewell. So we've had Vardy and de Bruyne in England. We will be bringing you Vatongen, Ranieri and Lacazette. We're going to start though with what a Friday night there is in store in Italy. The only one

of the five major European leagues to offer up a final day title decider. One game left to play, Napoli a point ahead of Inter, Inter go to Como, Napoli at home to Caliari. If they finish on the same points, we get a title playoff meaner between the two. And actually whilst you could go on paper, oh, Napoli will beat Caliari. If last weekend is anything to go by, literally anything could happen. Yeah, literally anything can happen. But I would be really shocked to my core if Napoli throw this away because they're playing against a team. Kaleri has nothing left to play for.

On top of it, Napoli are playing at home. It's Antonio Conte. And yes, anything can happen, but you would just imagine in this particular game that they'll get over the line. So much so that even Inter seem to think so. So they're going to be heavily rotating their side. They're traveling to Como, a much harder team to be facing,

considering Fabregas just can't stop winning at the moment with this team. And Como have a point to make. They are in 10th position. They are newly promoted. They want to show you how great they are. They have invested in the market. They've got really wealthy owners, really great players, a beautiful philosophy and a style of play.

And it seems like they're really going to go for it. And it seems like Inter are like, you know what, take it because our attention is going to be elsewhere. On top of it, Inter's really angry that this is happening on Friday. They wanted it to happen on Thursday, this final day, so that it gives them plenty of time to then play potentially the playoff game, which is now scheduled for Monday, which leaves them with less time to prepare for that all-important final against PSG.

And the thing is, it could have been even much better because Inter took the lead twice against Lazio at the weekend when Napoli drew against Parma away from home, so it could have even been better. And I think, in a way, I agree with Mina, I think Napoli are going to win on Friday and we won't have that kind of league final playoff, call it whatever you want. But I think it would have been super cool if the playoff final had happened

because he could have maybe given other leagues idea to follow what Serie A have been doing and do the same because I think it's something super cool whether you like the goal difference or you like the head to head and all our leagues are different, some do head to heads, some do goal difference, you can find pros and cons for either to be fair but surely if you're level on on point after 34 games 38 games in your league depending really there's nothing better than having a final between those two who are level on point instead of separating them with goal difference or head to head and just for that reason i would have loved it to happen in seria this season so maybe other leagues like the premier league like league Ligue 1, La Liga,

I could have thought, actually, that's a great idea. What a great game that was. Let's do the same, but we might not have it. Well, I'm just going to say one thing. For it to happen, then we need Inter to get one point and then we need Napoli to lose. So a lot of, well, let's just say a lot of pundits think that they're going to throw this game and not really care. naturally to lose. So a lot of, well let's just say a lot of pundits think that

they're gonna throw this game and not really care. But you have Zappa for example who's come out who is the Callieri defender who said don't worry until we're gonna give it our all, we're gonna play the game of our lives so that we're gonna make sure that we deal with this with integrity. I don't think if you offered every single pundit in Italy a bet, I would say to you about 97% of them would vote on Callieri just not showing up. And I think it tells you everything that you need to know when Inter look like they're

going to arrest most of their players, because even they don't believe that Callieri's going to show up. So I think that even if they don't show up, because Napoli have shown at times that they don't have this attack that can score a ton of goals. So, but you would just, you would imagine Lukaku would find a way eventually, right? But Meina, on that, we could have made this same point about the game at Parma last weekend.

You can't, you couldn't have made the same point. Really? Why? Yes, because Parma is trying to save themselves. Parma are under a new coach in Kivu. Kivu was a player and a defender for Inter for many, many years. But that's not why that result happened. That result happened because Napoli missed chances and then it all seemed to overroar them a

bit. No, couldn't that happen again? I mean, firstly, there was a penalty that was overturned by VAR towards the end, which I think many people at the time thought that that penalty should have counted and actually Napoli should have gotten that gold. But this is the thing, Parma are a very difficult team and the way that Kivu has ensured that his team continue to show up and always play their best game and considering that he is a former interplayer and it actually wants to ensure that Parma defeated Napoli so that there would be a very exciting end of last two matches, however you want to say it, but he really went for it with his team and Parma have to play Atalanta and they have to try to get

a point as well because they are fighting for their safety. So it's a different thing to look at when you're facing a Caliari team that has nothing to play for. And so this is where you start to think to yourself, it's not going to be a fight. It's not a team that's fighting for top four. It's not a team that's fighting against relegation. They're sort of just existing at the moment. And so against it, an Apoly side that should, and we say this, and I get your point, that should be playing with a bit between their teeth, but we have seen them falter.

And I think that that tells you a lot about this league right now, because Inter should have finished this off, because Apoly haven't been the very best. We haven't seen the very best from both of these sides in the matches that have mattered. And I think that's what's the most disappointing. Yes, this has been such an exciting season for Serie A. I think there is so much competition,

whether it's for the top four places or whether it's for the actual winner. But I do think that in moments that matter, we haven't seen a very strong team. And I think that disappoints me a little because it shows you that the real quality hasn't shone in the moments that it should. And I think it's brought down the league in that way. I mean, people saying this is one of the worst leagues that we've seen play in many years. This

is the worst football. Yeah. Not because it's not exciting. It's super exciting. But the problem is, is that there just isn't really a great team at the moment. Everyone is somewhat mediocre at times and if you look for example at Inter they've been very angry with some of the refereeing decisions and I can understand them. They actually decided to not speak to the media after their last match against obviously we know what happened against Lazio where Pedro who's about to turn 38 just managed to have the game of his life. Can't say it's big mate as well. Yes and Jan Byszek gave away a penalty towards the end in which it entered Donate or feel that that was a penalty and they feel they've been harshly done

by in several games. But there's also a lot to be said with the way that they've handled the matches at the start of the season. In the first five games, they only won two games, threw away points when they should have started off strongly to not have this ending. It is what it is. Can I stay with the point that in Italy people think it's been a mediocre season? Because it's been this similar debate in England, in Spain, let me know also in France, Jules, with the superiority of PSG. And I just wonder if either we are judging rightly and the teams are getting worse or something, or perhaps the glamour of Champions League or competition that we follow, we all follow

very closely and the fans as well, even them not having teams in the competition, everybody watches the Champions League. If it's just blurring the lines a little bit and making us think that the day-to-day football that we get at the weekends is not good enough when actually it probably is some of the best football we've seen in a while. I don't know. How do you feel? Does it depend on what kind of football fan you are?

For some people, quality of football and what you're watching and the product is the most important thing for other people and I'm probably in this boat, I am pure drama. So for me to hear that anyone is anything other than absolutely in, not just this season in Serie A, they're like, you know, how many different champions over the course of a short space of time? I'm amazed, Mina, because to me I just assumed everyone would be absolutely loving it, especially in Italy where, you know, the ends always justify the means, don't they? Oh, absolutely. In terms of drama, I think this is probably one of the most exciting leagues that

we've ever had. But it's also this sort of disappointment where it's like, where's the ambition? Where's the anger? Where's this, I'm not going to let this go. We're going to fight till the end. We're both winning every match relentlessly. A little bit like, you know, the seasons that you get with Klopp and Pep when they were just going for it, getting as many points as possible, and it was just this. It's interesting you say that, because there's a lot of debate at the time with Spain, where they used to call it a two,

well, I still call that before Atletico started to make a run for it as well, but a league that was just defined by these two teams, even though in the Europa League, you also had a Valencia or Sevilla or somebody making the difference, but it was always defined by those two. But it was power.

It was these teams that would relentlessly win. It was great. It was great level of technique at the highest level. It wasn't sort of games in which they were tying against Genoa, you know, or they can't win against Parma. Like really, like it's that kind of thing, which makes you think it's a shame that there isn't this great strength, but it doesn't mean that the football is bad. It's not that. And it doesn't mean that the challenges

aren't there and the competition is very fair, but perhaps it's almost too much competition and less actual strength. And I say this despite knowing that Inter have reached the Champions League final. Well, and this is the thing, Jules. If it did go to a title play-off, that is before the Champions League final, so it would add an extra game for Inter, so I know what you want to happen. Yeah, we'd love a play-off final on Monday night for them, although Monday to Saturday you still have a bit of time to recover. But that would be the worst scenario for

for Inter Milan, a PhD player on Saturday in the French Cup final and Inter, as we said, on Friday night in what could be the last game or might not be the last game and there might be another one after. But sure, if you're a PhD, you you're watching on Friday hoping for a playoff final without a doubt. So the big question then, what happens to Antonio Conte if, well, do you know what, not even if, Mina, whatever happens he could go? Whatever happens he could go. Lots of accusations of, is this a man who just loves to come change things around and then not build upon his success? And now we know that AC Milan is looking for a coach. He has been linked to that.

He's been linked to a return to Juventus, who, if you believe several reports, claim that they're desperate to have him back, to reinvigorate a side that's lost his ways. This is what you get with Conte, right? I mean, he has his demands. He wants better players. He wants better infrastructure.

He wants investment from this club. And he wants to... He said this is the most tiring season of his life. I mean, he's never a coach who doesn't indulge in hyperbole. So, and listen, it is a miracle for him to... I say miracle. I don't actually think it's a miracle, but that's the way it's being described right now by the Italian media.

This is all on him because it's amazing that this Napoli side that finished in 10th position last year is actually winning or very close to winning the Scudetto. But we need to remind you that two years ago, they won the title with Spalletti. And sure, they've lost Gravett-Gaeli and they've lost Ossimen, but this is the team that was also playing once a week. So it's not beyond the realms of possibility that they are supposed to be doing relatively well. But he has had many problems throughout the season and he needs to conquer them despite

having a very strong Inter challenging him along the way. And I don't know whether that says more about Inter or it says a lot about Napoli. But either way, Conte, a lot of people don't think he's going to stay. But think about it, just imagine he goes to Milan, first Italian coach potentially to then win a league title with all top three clubs as well as now probably. Imagine that. And the important thing is everyone's very, very calm. So calm, in fact, that both Inzaghi and Conte are both suspended for the touchline for the final game of the season because of

what happened last weekend. Whoever loses out in that title race, as football fans, you've got to try and remember it can almost always be worse. And with that, to the Netherlands, and one almighty fumble. Ajax were 9 points clear, with 7 games left to play after they beat PSV Eindhoven on the 30th of March. Last weekend it was the PSV fans celebrating, deliriously, they snatched the title thanks to the mother of all collapses from their big rivals. So these are the numbers. Ajax had dropped less than 10 points from their previous 25 matches.

They then dropped 10 more in just 4 matches, which meant on the final day PSV just needed to beat Sparta Rotterdam which they did to win the league. Oh and the Ajax manager Francesco Farioli has quit as well. Let's bring in to Telegraph's football editor Marcel van der Kran. Hey Marcel. Good evening guys. I just thought I'd sum all of that up and just do all the data so we can talk about the fun stuff. I was going to say, have you ever seen anything like that before? But it's a record collapse, so you haven't. No, and also the calamity with it all I've never seen. I think it's my 44th or 43rd season with the Aero Division and I've seen some great, great collapses. I've seen other great title winning races,

but this really was beyond everybody, whether it was, I spoke to Mark Van Basten, Rudolf Hullet, Arnold Muren, everybody was so intensely involved and really couldn't believe it. And I don't think it will happen for another 45 years. Now that Ajax have lost the league, who is going to be dead? Who's going to take years for the career to come back to the Le Boliwos this season? Well, the most bizarre situation really started a year ago and I know we have discussed this

on the programme before, but to understand the extent of what's gone off in the Netherlands era at the VC with the biggest club of all time, with the biggest reputations and most beautiful academy and everything, we have to go back to last year when Ajax appointed in the season before Sven Mislin-Tat, who is a former Arsenal scout of course, and he was given what everybody at Ajax said in hindsight, he was given the reins of the club completely. They gave him kind of the key of the bank, of the safe, let him do what he wanted, and he brought in 115 million euros of players. Now, not all of them were bad, but a lot of them were players who did not fit in the IS style. And if there is one club in Europe where you have to look at and think they have a philosophy,

they have an attacking style, they have a dominant, which was instilled by Johan Cruyff, René Smeichels, which was gone on with great players like Van Basten, Rijkaard. Everybody understood the philosophy in the academy and then last year that was all turned upside down with importing players instead of bringing players in from the academy like they did before with Frankie de Jong, Matthijs de Ligt, you name them all and in the history Patrick Claverts. All these strangers, I call them strangers, from outside did not understand the philosophy of the club. Now it went wrong, Mislintat was sacked, the manager was sacked, directors went, so they started

again and who do they appoint? You think after such a season you go back to your route, back to your philosophy or your ideals of your club, they appoint an Italian, the first Italian ever who plays defensive football. You know, it comes to a stage where you think, how mad can you go at a club who everybody seems to have lost it? And this is where I think the season already started, strangely, with Ajax getting way behind,

and by Christmas everybody said give the title bring the trophy that big silver plate which is a ridiculous trophy in my opinion anyway I prefer a proper cup didn't even want it so yeah so bring it to PSV Eindhoven let them celebrate let them have a double carnival in February which they always do in the south of the Netherlands, let them have it. And then we saw the biggest collapse of all time at PSV Eindhoven of a side who played wonderful football until Christmas. Now, and this is where it was a crazy season and where so many weeks later Steve just summed it all up. Farioli, the Italian has gone and we're looking for a return to the Ajax philosophy and who's going to take us there and is Ajax going to come back to where they really belong? That was going to be my question, Marcel, really, who's next then? Because we said

Faioli was never really the right guy. I know he did a decent job for some of it and then maybe his youth and his lack of experience because he's a very young manager also cost them that title as you said the collapse at the end although really PSV are by far the best team and have the best squad in the whole league so you could also understand why they've won it but what's next? Is it Rijziger? Is it somebody else from the league? Does he have to be an ex-Ix player or somebody who shares that philosophy?

Where do they go from here? Well, in my opinion, Ix have lacked a proper Ix coach for a long time. Of course, it was Eric Tenach and he inherited a great squad, a really fantastic squad, a bunch of young players who you could just send on the pitch and it was all tiki-taka. You know, with Frankie De Jong, the master of in midfield, and so many young players who knew how to play. Well, you really, you think if you're sensible, you don't have to be a professor or a rocket scientist to understand that this squad again needs rebuilding with a former Ajax player or somebody who has had his whole upbringing as a coach, right, and you named one of them there,

very good, Michael Reisiger, perfect, perfect option, but the people at the helm at the moment is a former football agent of the sports entertainment group Alex Cruz and Marijn Buuker who was in Scotland not at top level in the second division who was only there for one year and no experience of building a Champions League worthy team or a Champions team and who are they looking at? They're also looking at the winner of the Dutch KNVB Cup, the Dutch FA Cup, Paul Simonis, who is a really talented coach, but again, no experience, no background of Ajax. So I am worried. I am worried what Ajax will do next because after the last two seasons you think every time

can it go any worse and you think no no no surely they go back to their senses now but it's not happened so far. Can I ask in many ways I don't think Ajax was expected to to challenge for the title and Farioli okay even with his ways he was pragmatic but he he did achieve something and it seemed so I've listened to very deferring views. Some of them said that they did want Fadou early to stay and that actually they couldn't come to an agreement of how and when the style should be and the different metrics, but that they did appreciate what he did represented and wouldn't have minded continuing the journey with him, but that he wanted something else. Is that true or was it very much like, no,

we don't want to continue with him? Yeah, I get where you are coming from. Indeed, it was a case of, did he jump or was he pushed? Exactly. And it was something in the middle there. He was slowly forced out of the door because everybody realized this is not what we want for the future. And we are making it clear to him, this is not what we want for the future and we are making it clear to him, this is what the Ajax director had in mind, we want you to change your style. But Farioli is a young upcoming manager who has created his own style and you can't really expect of him with his Italian background, with his way of thinking, modern people, data etc. to change completely to a way of football, the Ajax way, which has never been his way. So I could understand he wasn't happy with that.

And at the same time, he was putting in demands, which Ajax, because of all the finances, which order the money that was burned last year could not afford. And we heard from very good sources that, yeah, it's almost hilarious, but he wanted three chefs to do away games for the team. And he thought that would help. He wanted more physios. He wanted more doctors. He wanted a bigger staff. And the staff was already really big. And we were wondering, you know, do you need one coach for all the staff or one coach for all the players

to every game when you play with Ajax? And in a way, I can understand it because he wants top, top level quality. And that is what he would want in that situation if he was going to carry on. There's a great quote from Farioli actually, which I have to say is a little bit David Brent. He said, and he's in a difficult situation here clearly, he said, the management and I have the same goals, but with different visions and timeframes about how we operate to achieve those goals. Now that is like straight out of the office. Marcel, just before we let you go, there are two teams involved in this story. It's not just about the Ajax collapse, it's about how well PSV did to get over the line,

and indeed with Peter Boss, former Ajax manager, winning back-to-back league titles. So he's the guy again. In my opinion, he always was the guy. I have a great feeling for the kind of coach of Peter Boss. Why? He's a Johan Cruyff man. Everybody on this program knows I'm a Cruyff fan. Cruyff brought the best football to the world from the Netherlands, from a small country. And it was all coming from the heart and soul

of a man who thought you have to entertain the public. Cruyff always said I would rather win five forward at one zero. And that's exactly the opposite of what happened this year at Ajax of course. And Peter Boss has that same ID. Peter Boss worked with Johan Krojew's son, Jordi, when he was in Israel for one or two seasons. And Krojew usually came to visit his son

and also took care of Peter Boss. They had great conversation. Peter Bos became an absolute fan of Pep Guardiola and his way of thinking, his love for football goes so much along with what Kroijve wanted, what Pep's doing, and far more than Ronald Kuhlman, for instance. And that's why everybody in the Netherlands thought, well, if one guy has to deserve or deserves to win it, it will be Peter Boss. And he did.

Marcel, always lovely to have you with us. Thank you very much. Cheers, guys. All the best. Great stuff. Marcel van der Kran, football editor from De Telegraaf. The commentator's view on the football daily. I'm Alistair Bruce Ball. I'm John Murray. Hello, I'm Ian Dennis.

And Friday's On the Football Daily means one thing. The Commentators' View episode. You use the word scenes. If I did use words like that. Join us every Friday as we look ahead to the weekend's football action with a few untold stories along the way. The commentator's view only on the Football Daily. Listen on BBC Sounds. On the Football Daily podcast, the EuroLeagues with Steve Crossman. Listen on BBC Sounds. with Steve Crossman. Listen on BBC Sounds. There have been lots of big farewells. In fact, it suddenly feels like if you're not

doing like a big budget goodbye, then did you really care about the player in the first place? So we had De Bruyne and we had Jamie Vardy, some really, really special moments. The big banner is essential. You've got to do the big banner. And I actually think Mina Roemers for Claudio Ranieri might have been the best. Yeah, it was the absolute best. I mean, it was really hard not to be emotional just because Ranieri is so in love with his job and he's so in love with the human experience. And he talks about the roller coaster of emotions that you feel as a coach. And then that's what he signs up for. So it's not necessarily the trophy is he said it's being loved by the people, my community.

And Roma is his community. He said, you've been alongside me for 60 years. I was standing where you were 60 years ago. And to end his career, coming out of retirement for Roma, and he's done a splendid job. This was a team that was hovering just above relegation, but they just couldn't stop winning, went on a 19-game stretch, winning relentlessly.

And then they're still in with a chance of reaching top four, for him to say bye in front of his people. And so much of them have begged him to stay on because you don't know what they would have achieved had he started the season. But obviously, he doesn't want to stay on. But it was very emotional as he stood in front of the Corvas Sud, and they all turned their plaques, and it said, Grazie Ranieri, and it was one of the most beloved guys. I understand when we had this conversation and I said to you, we discussed Ancelotti and Ranieri and I even said it was Pellegrini but apparently not. But Ranieri remains as one of the most loved figures and I think it was just such a beautiful tribute from the Roman fans for

him. You know, Guillaume, the other thing is because of how well he's done, and I know he's looking at jobs kind of outside of management now, but we've been here before with Claudio Ranieri. He has done so well there, Guillaume. It's not like you look at him and think, well, do you know what? Football sort of left you behind. Maybe it's time to move on. Like he's doing this through his own choice. It'd be interesting to ask him if he feels that. If he feels that to continue being at the elite for longer and not just in an emergency situation, he will need an energy that is

required, a much bigger coaching staff, studying the new trends of football and he just went like, nah, I'm not up for that. But in any case, you always have to live on a high. You have to live when you are at the top. So for instance, if you are in this show and you don't realise that the Dutch league has finished, maybe that's your time to finish. I thought you were about to retire then. You could do what they said, André Pastor Coghlu should do a mic drop. You could just like leave the zoom just like Guillem Balaguez has left the, please don't do that. Please don't do that. What about Lacazette Jules, Alexander Lacazette, Leon,

that was pretty special. Yeah, that was very special. His 392nd game for the club in two different spells because obviously he spent five years at Arsenal in between. But a bit like for Claudio really, because Ranieri is a proper Romanista, born and bred in Rome and same for Lacazette, born and bred in Lyon, went through the academy, became a club legend, was stuck on 199 goals in all competitions for the club before that last game. So he had to score to make it 200. It was not possible, a bit like Vardy with Leicester.

And he did it. He missed a few chances. I mean, he was very emotional even before kickoff. His three children came onto the pitch with him, you know, when the teams came out of the tunnel. Maybe for all that emotion and all the singing from the whole stadium, he missed three big chances, then scored a penalty, then scored a second goal.

So 200 and 201 gold in his Lyon career. The second one given by Ryan Cherky, who's also leaving this summer and that was also his last game for the club and also a bit of a club legend for different reasons too, like I said, but maybe the most gifted player that Lyon have ever produced really. For Lacai, it was very special. then he they went back to the dressing room They qualified for Europe thanks to that win, too And then he came back out again the whole stadium at States and everybody was on the pitch all his family everything and he was A proper tribute, you know with the videos a lot the tears and then he was given he was giving this interview to French television

After super emotional and Ryan Cherokee's mom came over, hijacked the interview saying, I'm Ryan's mum, can I get a selfie? So literally, the whole country is watching that very emotional interview and then Ryan Cherky's mum, bless her, comes in for the selfie. And then just to finish this quite incredible night, Lacazette realised that while he was playing, while all this was happening, all the tribute and everything, his house got burgled in Lyon. Oh no. I know, yes. So in the end, not the finish that he would have liked. Well, yes, it was, but not really considering his ass was broken in when he was doing his last game for you.

Jan Vertonghen, Mina, did you see that one? That was a nice one. Yeah, that was very sweet. And Anne Dellecq and his daughter held up the, oh my god, I forgot the word for it, the substitutes. Yeah, the time board. Yeah, the board, just the board. Yeah, just the board so that he would be substituted off. And she was holding it and it was a very emotional scene. He stood alongside some of his ex-spurs teammates and they all waved goodbye. It does seem like that. It seems like it's a big farewell to a lot of those players right now.

But still, I'm going to say it wasn't as beautiful as any of these. Some still show more emotions than others, especially because it's normal, the different personalities. But Vertonghen, like, still serious, he's a quite serious guy anyway. And even Vardy after his game, when the interviewer gave like, no, I'm OK, it's fine. Like, you know, I was ready for this. And so it's very, very interesting to see how different they all are. Whereas Ranieri was so emotional and crying.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And you know where this is going, of course, people are going to get tired of players being sent off and all these kinds of celebrations. I'm hearing people get upset when teams celebrate victories. So this goes next, I imagine, criticism of that. But about time that this has happened. This is a new trend, by the way. This is not the usual. What, the big farewell?

Yeah, big massive farewells. Yeah, I love it. I love it. It's like, because you can do big massive signing announcements. I think this is even better. Fans absolutely love it. There are some selective ones in history. The Pep Guardiola one, of course, was emotional, but Xavi left and nobody shared a tear or

organized anything. And it goes, yeah, he went to Qatar. That is awkward. If you were that big a player, every time anyone knocked on the door, you'd be like, here we go. It's the big surprise. And then no. I remember Rye's last game at the Paris-des-Prince for PhD.

He was crying. The whole stadium was crying. I was crying. My dad was crying. Everybody was crying. I'd never seen so many ground men crying in the same stadium for not even a win. It was just for one player leaving the club. It was incredible. It was a bit like Tony Cruz, Tony Cruz last year.

But I think the thing that was so upsetting was Valverde's tribute. I think everyone was crying because of that tribute that Valverde wrote to him, which said something like, you're my icon and the player I looked up to. But that was a really that was I think a lot of us started to cry with that. Jose Mourinho has been crying again, but in a different way. This is a quote. Basically, so Galatasaray won the league and Fenebatch I obviously didn't. He's taking it well. The way you celebrate championships shows your human condition. Today's championship celebrations were like a summary of the stories of this season. They even made the goalkeeper take a penalty.

What a great image to show how humane you are. Fernando Muzzlera It should have added that the goalkeeper scored a penalty and apologised for it. That's not right either. Something is going on there. Will Barron Hold on, so for context, this is Fernando Muzzlera. This is another farewell story by the way because it looks like Muslera is leaving. 550th appearance, been at the club 14 years, nearly 200 clean sheets. So they let him take a penalty and they were going to win the league anyway, Guillem, that's alright, isn't it?

Yeah, they were 2-0 up. They needed to win this, Galatasaray needed to win this game to confirm that they are champions. Minut 88 and of course there's a penalty. So I think it starts with the fans almost asking Muslera to take a penalty. This would have been if he scores his second goal with the team. First goal came in another penalty in his first season at the club. And yeah, just took a terrible penalty, hit the legs of the goalkeeper, goes

in, Moussler apologised, but then of course that sparked a passionate celebration, so all the subs from Galatasaray came on the pitch and celebrated with him because yes, of course, he's also leaving at the end of the season. Actually just so kind of moving on slightly from farewells, but not quite, Guillaume, this all sort all puts the pressure on for Real Madrid and Luka Modric. We've just learned that today, haven't we? He's going to leave at the end of the season, six Champions Leagues, four La Liga titles,

hundreds of appearances. How do you say a proper goodbye to Luka Modric? I'm not actually sure. It wouldn't matter how grand it is. I don't think it could ever be enough. No. It's 13 seasons the man arrived when he was 27 and he's living almost when he's 40 and all those titles there will be of course emotional moments and you've got one and you will have one annoyed person of the Santiago Bernabéu on that day which is Luca Modric

who did not want to leave he was ready ready for another season. He's kind of with gritted teeth accepted his role at Real Madrid, not so much in the first season of Ancelotti when he was asked to be on the bench and he wasn't happy at all. But in this second season, he was coming on and making a difference. Real Madrid have felt that football is moving into a different direction, more dynamism, more physicality. So yeah, the one who was voted the worst foreigner in the history of Real Madrid in a Marca poll in another Aspol, soon after that he was the fan of Real Madrid preferred. Osil and Kaká that season to Modric that wasn't taking off when he first arrived to Real Madrid. Well now, of course, he lives as a legend and there will be tears, I'm sure because it's the end of an era isn't it?

And the farewell is obviously Saturday because that's the last La Liga game of the season at home to Raul Sociedad. But not really because he's going to go to the Club World Cup and then the Club World Cup will be his last competition for Real Madrid, but you can't do a farewell in New York or in Philadelphia or Chicago for the Real Madrid fans who are in Madrid or somewhere in Spain really. So that's, I guess, modern football for you. There will be a farewell and then another farewell in another competition in another country, not that much longer after. Also, he's only 39, so he's got at least five years in Serie A if he wants it, Mena. Oh, with Ranieri? Listen, in like Pepe Reina, he's also retiring from Como.

So he left Villarreal, came to Como, 12 appearances, retiring. Goalkeepers are different, somewhat different for Modric. He's still in his 40s and playing in Italy, that's what we meant. To be honest with you, you're right. I mean, he still has plenty of time. And I'll be honest with you, if they offered him to any team in Italy, I'm sure none of them would say no. Do you know what, Guillaume, it's worth touching on Reiner as well, because I suppose the difference with him is we're talking about all of these players who are having their last game either in their home country or the country where they've become most famous and most important

like Modric obviously has for Real Madrid. Slightly different for Pepe Reiner, he's had a fantastic career in numerous different countries. If he plays this weekend for Como, that is going to be that for him. But his big impact, well there's quite a lot of them, but he had a big impact on the Spain national team as well, didn't he? Even as somebody who was not a regular fixture. Yeah, he was the third goalkeeper for the two European championships, 2008 and 2012, on the World Cup. And he was a kind of cheerleader, but a leader as well. So he was the best third goalkeeper in the history of Spain in terms of his involvement

with the side, how he protected the ones that were the number one and the number two. And and he was the first Spanish player to actually be in the top four leagues. He was very, very good at Napoli. Of course, he was at Bayern Munich with Pep Guardiola, who had been his captain at Barcelona as a player. So he's been that long around. And I don't know if I have time for this, but the generation of 2010 of Spain, little by little disappearing, of course, a long, long time since then.

There are 10 players who are still playing. Oh, crikey. So can you give me three? Oh, so Gia messaged me before the show and he was like, have we got time for a quiz question? I was like, yeah, yeah, if it's quick. So when you just said there are 10 answers, I'm not gonna lie to you. So 10 players.

I mean, one is Sergio Ramos, right? In Mexico, to start with. Sergio Ramos is one, yes. So this is the Spain team from the 2010 World Cup. 2010 World Cup, they're still playing. David de Gea? Oh, that's a great shout. No, no.

Sergio Busquets? Busquets is another one. Oh, Gilles, you're absolutely flying. I mean, I can let you play YouTube, but you sound pretty useless to me, so maybe just me and you. One more left. He plays in Italy. Short.

Surely. Come on. We mentioned him already. We mentioned him already. No, in the Lazio game, in the Inter-Lazio game. Pedro? Yeah, that's right, in the Inter-Lazio game. Pedro? Yeah, that's right, Pedro.

She said Pedro about five times. I said it like three times. I didn't hear you. Sorry, I was talking over you. That was good. That was good, Guillem. That was over in like two minutes. It's very nice. Juan Mata, Javi Martinez still around. Raul Albiol, of course, with Villarreal. We've got a couple of things still to get to. Jules, this is a really simple question. I don't know how easy it is to answer it simply,

but how are Le Havre still a league team? It's a great question, Steve, because they have the 26th budget in French football. So way, way, way below the 15th position where they finished the season. And for a long time, they looked like they were going to go down with Montpellier. They were battling with Saint-Étienne and then they were potentially could finish in the third from bottom, which takes you in the playoff with the team that finished third from the top in the second division

for promotional relegation basically. It was between Dem and Reims and Saint--Etienne on the last day of the season. And they were away at Strasbourg, high flying Strasbourg, although tiring Strasbourg as well, but still young team. Very good old season with Liam Rosinia. And we never thought that Le Havre could go and win there while Reims would not win their game and Saint-Etienne neither. And it's exactly what happened,

except that for Le Havre, it happened in the 99th minute at the start of the La Menaux with the second penalty of the game and Abdoulaye Touré who scored the first one already on the right of the goalkeeper, so his left, put the ball onto the spot for the second one knowing that if he scored that they would be safe against all odds really because they have no money. Literally they could only send players last summer on loan or free transfers. They had to sell two of their best young players from the academy before they could even play for their first team because they just needed the money. So they sold them on the cheap and they have a great academy and those players will never

play for Le Havre unfortunately. And yet on the 99th minute Touareg scored a panenka to keep them up in Ligue 1 which was just incredible and I'm so happy for them, for Mathieu Bodmer the former Lyon PhD and Nils Mietvelder who's now the sporting director who's doing an immense job considering they have no money. To show you the head of comms at the club is also the stadium speaker on matchday. I mean the guy does everything, I think he cleans as well, he cuts the grass. This is what Le Havre are doing and they stayed up really against Ollard so it's a wonderful story. Can we just reflect on what would have happened if he'd missed the penalty though because a Penenka in that, I don't know if you guys

remember, Jules will definitely remember because he's French, but you guys remember the Jan Kermegant Pinenka penalty attempt for Leicester City. So it was in the playoff semi-final a few years back and Kermegant steps up in the penalty shootout and tries a Pinenka and it's awful and it's saved and that's it and they get knocked out. And it was that bad that, you know that song turn around, that one, can't remember who it is.

That's the one. Bonnie Tyler. Thank you, Bonnie Tyler. Lester fans did a version of that which is absolutely hilarious, which is Kermagandt. So he lives in infamy and that's what would have happened to Thorey had that penalty been saved. So I think fair play, you have to say, but also slightly questionable now. I think so. I mean, Michael Landreau, the former France goalkeeper, missed one in the French Cup final,

taking it in the penalty shooter against Sochaux-Fernand and they lost the final. So you see. Big, bold, broad question to ask you is kind of like the last thing on the Euroleagues, the last sort of chunky discussion. So we've had in England second straight season where the three promoted teams up to the Premier League have gone straight back down to the championship. I was given this stat by producer Paul and it is astounding. The last time the three promoted teams went

straight back down in one of Europe's other top four leagues, Italy, Spain, France and Germany was 32 years ago. So everyone will be shouting at the radio, the reason is money and money is a big part of the reason, But I just wonder, Guillaume, whether there are extra nuances to it, because 32 years are a long time. I think you will see that the trend is similar, perhaps not as acute, but similar in other leagues, certainly in Spain. I wasn't sure what to say of it when we first approached this issue, but then I realized that in the last few years, 15 teams in La Liga more or less stay in the division and

five go up and down, including a team like Espanyol that could go down for the third time in like six, seven years, which was one of the solid teams in La Liga. And it's all down to money. I think it's two things. Financial fair play doesn't allow to give you an injection of capital that allows a team to either go from small to very big or to survive much more clearly in the first division.

That's one thing. And the other thing is the parachute money that in the Premier League is massive. In Spain, there is a little bit and it has to do with how many years you've been in La Liga, how many money you get from television rights. So 2.5% of the television rights is dedicated to be shared amongst the three teams that go down, which that allows you to sort out your budget, but not much more. You cannot grow.

So if you are able to have a good group of people and a good coach, you may go up, but find yourself that don't have the finances to compete at the top. So it's going to happen more and more. And in fact, three out of the three teams that went up last season, two are going down. It could be a third one as well. So you are talking about a trend that it's all over. And for me, it's down to those two courses. I think for me the biggest thing maybe is that if your second division has a similar

style of football overall, I know every club, every team is different, but certainly the strength of that league is quite similar to the top flight in the same country, then I think it's probably easier for a team going up, even without too much of the resources, to be able maybe to survive. And I mean, we saw Saint-Étienne this year, it's the first time where they've done the yo-yo, so going down, up and down again in their history. They've been down a few times, but usually when they come up, they stay for a few years and then sometimes go down again. This time they went down straight away.

But still, I think because Ligue 1 is very physical, like Ligue 1, outside of maybe PSG and a few other teams that play very good football and slightly different for many reasons, but still it's a very physical league overall. And I think if you have that in Ligue 2 and you need that to succeed in Ligue 2 or in your second division, wherever your country is, and you still need the same ingredients in a way to do well in your top flight, then you might be okay. But it's true that there's more and more the gap between your top flight and your second division. And sometimes even your second division to your third division is getting bigger and bigger. Nina? Well, if you look at the newly promoted size, you're probably betting on Parma and Como. Well, Como definitely are staying up.

And I think that there's been a lot of investment, outside investment, in even Serie B, even smaller teams than that, from private equity or former footballers. Verratti, for example, has just gone in for 44% of Pescara. And when you have that investment, like what Berlusconi buy Monza before he passed away, and these teams that were then promoted, there's a project there.

So that when they are promoted into Serie A, they actually can stay, which is what we assume now Como is going to continue building upon their success. We think that Parma can as well if there's a well enough system. So actually with Italy, because there's less money at the very top, I think there's more competition. And teams who are promoted can stay there for a while,

like we saw happen with Sassuolo, like we saw happen with Monza. Monza's relegated this season. Sasuolo is back in Serie A, but we imagine that it won't be long before Monza get back in. So I think there's more financial parity when it comes to that and more investment in Serie B teams right now. So I don't think that's the same for Italy. I'm not sure that those who are promoted will immediately be demoted in the way that the Premier League does. Right, let's finish with this because we talked a lot about Sampdoria being relegated to Serie C for the first time in their history last week. Well, as it turns out, they haven't

yet. So, start of this week, we learned there's an investigation into alleged financial irregularities at Brescia. They could end up getting a four point penalty, which would mean Sampdoria will be in a relegation playoff instead of going down automatically. Now we've not got enough time to go through all of the various permutations and we kind of don't need to Mina because the point is whoever gets relegated from Seria B to Ser Serie C might not find out for months. Yeah, so the decision as to what's going to happen with that has been postponed because Brescia obviously you know about the four point penalty potentially being given to them which means that they are relegated and that Sampdoria have a reprieving sense of playing

a two legged playoff. Now we don't know whether or not how Brescia will appeal this decision. It will take until May 30th before we understand what the judgment is on the Brescia situation and then even longer should they then lodge an appeal. So we're looking at a play out, Sampdoria versus Salahnitana potentially, that will happen somewhere in mid-June. Now we still don't know that because Salahnitana, one of the teams due to play who was supposed to play another team, are suing to have that decision changed and go ahead with a scheduled play-out against Frozinone,

their original opponent, the opponent that they had trained to face. And so there is a potential that they will actually expand the league next season to 21 or 22 teams rather than the 20. And if you think that's messy, welcome to Italy. Thank you very much. That's really well explained. That was phenomenal. Phenomenal. Thank you very much guys. Speak to you all soon. Cheers. Bye. Ian Balague, Mina Rizuki, Julian Leran, all with us on the Euroleagues.

Up next on the Football Daily podcast, you can hear Liverpool manager Arna Slott in conversation with the BBC Sports Editor Dan Rowan.