Football Daily - Monday Night Club EXTRA: Fans turn on Ange & Liverpool lacking momentum

Episode Date: October 7, 2025

Mark Chapman is joined by Conor Coady, Chris Sutton and Rory Smith to reflect on more of the weekend’s football stories.The panel discuss Liverpool’s third successive defeat; are they now seeing the impact of Trent Alexander-Arnold leaving? Has Slot thrown too many new players in together? In Nottingham, are Forest fans fair to call for Ange Postecoglou to be sacked already?Plus, Coventry fan Katie Stafford joins the pod as they go top of the Championship and remain the only team in the 92 who are undefeated this season. Time codes: 0’17 Liverpool “not looking convincing” 18’21 Ange Postecoglou speaking post defeat at Newcastle 20’11 Nottingham Forest chat 26’31 Coventry fan Katie Stafford

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. To embrace the impossible requires a vehicle that pushes what's possible. Defender 110 boasts a towing capacity of 3,500 kilograms, a weighting depth of 900 millimeters and a roof load up to 300 kilograms. Learn more at landrover.ca. This is the Monday nightclub with Mark Chapman. On the Football Daily Podcast. Welcome to Monday Night Club Extra.

This is a bonus pod for you looking back at some more of the weekend's top stories. Chris Sutton, Rory Smith and Connor Cody are with us. We're going to start with Liverpool, who fell to a third successive defeat away at Chelsea on Saturday. So that's two Premier League away defeats, and they also lost in the Champions League. They've conceded seven goals in six league games. And the only caveat that I would say, Rory, about starting with Lerner, Liverpool is I think we did our Arsenal in crisis we didn't do it in in so many ways but we discussed whether Arsenal are going to have problems because they weren't

adventurous enough at Liverpool and look where they are we also did what's going to go what's going to happen to Manchester City after they lost to Tottenham and Brighton so that's the only thing I would would throw in there as a little caveat before we start this discussion yeah I think there's a couple more one is is that Liverpool have lost two Premier League games to goals in the 95th and 97th minute, which, you know, you'd consider yourself slightly unfortunate. But then they've rescued themselves with plenty of goals in and around those minutes. And they should, they should consider themselves fortunate to have done that as well. I think there's no question that Liverpool aren't controlling games.

That's not really up for debate. And the other is that I think you have to acknowledge that, I mean, Chelsea obviously are a Champions League team, admittedly missing their entire defence on Saturday. But they are a Champions League team. It is, you know, it is Chelsea. It's not kind of a minnow, and Pallas were the formed team in Europe when Liverpool played them. So I think a little bit of context is important, but that said, there's no question that there is clearly something off. Where do you think Liverpool's biggest issue is, if you think they do have an issue?

I think Liverpool look at this moment in time like a team who haven't played together a lot. That's what I think they look like. I think that's how they're playing. I think they look like they've had a lot of changes. And that's no excuse, by the way. but I think that's what they look like and I think for me the biggest issue was at fullback

I think where they're at I think they've been so used to kind of and Trent Alexander Arnold got a lot of stick last season Deney for his defending different things but the way he supports is Salon I'm sure we're going to speak about

selling different things and all these players I just think at fullback they look really really open at this moment in time I think the way they both fly forward I think they're both fantastic fullbacks but they've been playing

in a different way in different teams and I just think Liverpool look like at the minute a team who haven't been together for a long time One of those discussions we had last year was about if Trent Alexander Arnold was to go

how that affects Mo Salah not necessarily how it affects them defensively but how it affects Mo Salah 100% and I think you're seeing it now I think you're seeing it now now now when you look at Frimpong or Conner Bradley as well so I put Conner Bradley in this in terms of Connor Bradley loves to play

you'll see it when you watch him he underlaps an awful lot so he comes inside Mosalo and Salah's got the ball Frim Pong goes round him an awful lot to overlap Trent just supported from behind an awful lot Very rarely did you see Trent going outside Salad to them whip a ball

He would support from behind it and leave Salad to do So I think what you're seeing with Salat at this moment and time And this is my opinion is just not playing with players He doesn't understand where they're going to be So why isn't Frimpon behind me where Trent was for so many years Where I can just lay him a pass and he'll whip it into the box And it just comes from playing together constantly And we'll all look at it won't we as pundits

And as people who have an opinion on the game and go Liverpool miles off here But everyone goes through it when there's been loads of change. We just expect so much from them. But you talk about who's behind Sala. You could then talk about who is alongside Sala in Isak, or EKK, who's had a good start,

but they're new in that role. You could talk about who maybe one of the three is in that midfield three which would be versed. So in all the sort of triangles that you could draw as a link into Sala, the majority of those have changed depending on who's been selected.

Isn't even the best players in the world can find things tough like that and the problem I think we've all got is is that we expect so much from Sally because he's been so good for so many years but he's played with the same players for so long that's how it's being, that's what he's being good at and that's how he's being doing it

and I just think you're seeing now and I think we're seeing now a situation where there's been so many new players trying to bed into that team that even the best players find it tough at times where do you... Connor, are you surprised that Slot has thrown everybody in all at once

I think he's had to Asney a little bit, not necessarily Virt, but then when you sign someone for so much money, he's going to have to come in and play because you're expecting so much. I think the Frim-Pong situation, you're always going to change the football back because Trent's left. I think that's a big one. The Robertson one, I think, yeah, you could say that on the left-hand side

because Robertson's been never so long, Kirk has been thrown straight in. And then the striker situation, you have to play one of them. It's in a situation now where I think in time, and this is only my opinions in terms of, I think it's going to be tough in time to keep them both happy. I really do, because I think they're both incredible footballers. and I think to keep them both happy they're both going to want to play every minute of every game

and I think as the season goes on and they're both wanting to play I think that's going to be a tough thing to kind of manage a little bit myself but yeah I think in certain positions we can say that Rory yeah especially at the left back situation because Kyrke seems very raw doesn't he

obviously a player coming from Bournemouth coming to Liverpool is very roaring and he could probably learn off Andy Robertson as well Chris I think there's lots of things at Liverpool at this moment in time and they haven't had a disastrous start

to the season but neither have they even when they were winning games. I mean, you know, Rory mentioned the games. They've lost late. They've won games late. They weren't convincing and they haven't been convincingly. And we're talking about them because of their recent results. And we're talking about them because we aren't quite sure about them.

I'm not sure that Arna Slott is sure about what his best 11 is. And it's a bit of a mishmash at right back. Frimpong has played. And I think I said before on the Monday nightclub, I don't think that Arna Slott is having Frimpong defensive. Conner Bradley, good young player, replaced Trent at times. Maybe he's not had the best start to the season. But then he's playing Soberslie and not just Soberslie. Sobers lie is fitted in there. He's playing him out of position as such at right back. You're losing his influence from

midfield. Gravenberg at the weekend had to drop back. And he's done that a few times the season as a centreback. Needs must. And you're missing his influence in the midfield. So there's all these things going on, and Conner's touched on new players and building relationships and understanding, which, you know, all players need, and that may be affecting Salah. Verst, let's get it right, a lot of excitement over him, quite rightly so before he came in, you know, what Liverpool were buying. But it hasn't quite happened from yet. So there's all these things going on at this moment, and yet they've still sort of got results. But I think if you're a Liverpool fan, you would be a little bit. concerned what the three changes to the back for over the weekend

throughout the game. Kirkess hasn't really, hasn't, I always thought Robertson's boots would be big and tricky to feel, but it's not that he doesn't have the same quality going forward and it does take time and we're judging them. We're judging them based on what we saw last season. You mentioned Trent going and, you know, Robertson was there last season and they haven't hit those heights, but aren't a slot in fairness to hit. has said they did have issues last season as well,

but because, you know, they ended up winning the league, people didn't really bring them up. Yeah, I think that's a good point. I think there's a bit of misremembering about last season because the first four months, the narrative was, well, Liverpool haven't played anyone yet. They're not that good. They're not blowing teams away.

They only won seven games by more than two goals in the league, which is, you know, winning by two dolls can be comfortable. Liverpool didn't thrash anybody. They beat Spurs twice by, they won six three at, the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and 5-1 the day they won the lead at Anfield. And then I think United Ipswich, maybe Southampton, they were not smashing teams last season. And there were long periods where Liverpool were really good

at doing just enough to win a game. They weren't kind of three and a look by half time and coasting through the second half. And it looks like this season, and I agree with Chris completely, that even in the games that they won, or they have won, they were vulnerable at moments they were patchy there were moments where you looked to them and thought

okay you sort of see where this is going and then 10 minutes later Bournemouth would just be walking through the midfield or whatever it had all broken down completely and it's as though the fine margins that went their favour last season are just turning against them a little bit

and I think the crucial thing is that Slot doesn't seem he almost seems to have lost the courage of his convictions a little bit in terms of how much he's changing all at once because he's dropped verts now a couple of times, which as Connor says, a big thing to do for a player

who lost that much money. 433 yesterday, really, with that midfield of Sobers, Laimer Callister and Gravenberch. It's like he's not sure whether he wants to keep changing or whether he wants to kind of revert to what things were like last season.

And I wonder if that's true in the players' heads as well. But do you know what we're talking about in terms of so many new players? I also look from a centreback's point of view and also I watch a lot of centrebacks and you look at someone like Kanati, who's getting a bit of stick

at the start of the season, let's be honest, a lot of people are giving him a bit of stick. but you've got to remember he's been a player who's been there for years he's playing next to Van Dyke but he's having to play a different way now and what I mean by that is

is he's lost somebody next to him he's having to defend in the channel because Frim Pong or Bradley's out of position or Shabozla is in central midfield so teams are exploited that channel now and Karnati's now got to go out and defend and no centreback will ever tell you they want to defend out there

I'm telling you now from a centreback's you do not want to defend as a right back it's hard there's the reason you don't play there because you don't want to be out there you're not quick enough it's hard So why didn't he have to do that with Trent because Trent would sit

deeper and more centrally? Yeah, I just think Trent was a little bit more control. On the ball, Trent would go into midfield, I get it, but I always think Trent was there. And don't get me wrong, we all gave Trent stick, didn't we? But we're defending, a lot of people did. But I just think now, there's no fullback in position. So whenever the ball's on transition,

whenever Liverpool lose the ball, that space is always vacated. So Canate is having to defend in the channel with a massive space. And I'm telling you now, not one centreback will want to defend in that challenge. The reason why you play centreback

and you don't want to play right back because it's a tough position to defend. And I think that's also a change for the players who were there. I just think it's being tough all around in terms of players who've come in and then trying to change the way and get used to people who are in there.

Go on. This is on the fullback thing and I always get in trouble when I try and talk about tactics just people will invariably point out that I have no idea what I'm talking about. Roy, you coach an under-eight's team. That's true, and we did win four-free

despite the wind against Otley in the week. How did your full-backs do? Full-back, we just play one defender. That's all you need. Did you go with the wind in the... With the wind in the first? 4-0 up after the first quarter chappas,

just told him to shoot on site. Right, and then just sit back and defend. Yep, just hope that nothing that happened for the second half. Simplicity. Just shoot when you get the ball. Right. And so, I mean, I don't want to dress myself up as a tactical genius, but that was a big win, three and four now.

The other thing that gave them cover when Trent went wandering off, as he was told to do, that was kind of what Trent Alexander was meant to do, was that one of the midfielders dropped into that hole. They filled the space. Normally Gravin Berchin before that, Jordan Henderson. I don't know if in a 4-2-3-1, that's as easy to do. Because if you've only got two midfielders who are playing deep

and one of them drops out, then that kind of changes the balance. Whereas if you have that player who was in that sort of right-hand-sided slot, they could just fill in for Trent when he went forward. And I think that balance has changed. And the thing that's happening on the other side, and it happens so often it must be an instruction. Kyrkes drifts in field, which means there is always, a diagonal on into the space behind him.

And you see it all the time with Liverpool now. So I presume Slott is telling him to do it, but I've got to admit I've got no idea what the purpose of it is. Well, the former Lincoln manager looks puzzled by that tactical description from Rory. You look puzzled, Chris? The man doing his A licence next to me is just glazed over, so I don't know what to do there. No, just with, you know, listen carefully to what,

Connor said about Canarte, and it's not a sort of a centre-back's union, but he should still be able to adapt better and be able to cope in that situation. And the other thing with Canarte, you know, you're talking about a slight change in the way that he has to react to situations. He's been terrible on the ball this season. And that, you know, that has been an issue. And I do think the biggest issue with Liverpool has been there. There are players, who just aren't playing well, and all players go through stages like that throughout the season where they just haven't quite hit the heights. And the fact then, and I think it's legitimate where we talk about all Liverpool's forward players

and the excitement of the players that Arna Slot brought in. You just wonder whether that not signing Mark Gehie will come back to bite them in the backside because they don't have strength and depth and cover in there. like if you look at Arsenal you've got to say that you look at Liverpool squad Arsenal squad and you're thinking blind me Arsenal don't have looked strong if Liverpool get another one or two injuries

if Van Dyke got injured for argument's sake then they're in a bit of bother and they might have used Mark Geh as a right back if they needed to to be honest or on a back three or anything like that you could play him in any source I agree with Krista I think he would have been huge

Do you think the other thing in all of this is we should be more surprised when footballers move clubs and do hit the ground running rather than be surprised when they don't and and Chris talked about Kirk is filling Robertson's boots I'm fairly sure Rory will correct me if I'm wrong but I'm fairly sure Liverpool didn't play Robertson when Robertson joined for the first six months or so after he joined from Hull yeah he wasn't being kept out the team by a kind of Roberto Cal was right back yeah left back

it was Alberto Moreno who was flawed and Robertson didn't appear until about December regularly So it may be you move from another club in the Premier League It may be moved from abroad I've seen this thing going around

I don't really understand it About Verts has gone There's a on so Verts has gone seven games or something without assisting or scoring a goal Tieri Henri went his first seven or eight without assisting

or scoring a goal for Arsenal I think so there's the point Should we be more surprised when players do hit the ground running rather than when they don't? Yeah, I probably think we don't give them enough credit when they hit the ground run. I also think there's factors to it, and it's everything we've just spoke about in the last 10 minutes in terms of when you are a new player, going to a new club. Anywhere? Yeah, anywhere. Are you going to a settle club?

Now, if Liverpool kept the majority of the team from last season, it had been going to a settle club, so you'd probably fit in a little bit easier, you're going to a club that's had an enormous amount of change. So it's hard then to fit into a football club when there's been an enormous amount of change as well. I don't think we give people enough credit when they do hit the ground running but I think it does depend on what kind of club you're going into at that time and that Liverpool has been loads of change The other thing in all of that

and we've talked about this before Rory as a final thing here and we've had several emails on this same point and we have mentioned this before as well Paul in Amsterdam making the point of grief and we have talked we've mentioned this a few weeks ago when talking about Liverpool you cannot

calculate the effect that grief will be having on them as a group and on individuals. Yeah, and it's difficult because it feels a little bit glib to bring it up when the players themselves haven't mentioned anything about it. I think it was interesting that I think it might have been in his interview to Norwegian TV and Yanada Fiortoft. I think Van Dyck referenced it, but kind of obliquely, which may be the first time I've heard any of the players actually kind of say there are multiple factors going into this season that we need to be aware of. And it's understandable they don't want to talk about it. They are under absolutely no obligation to grieve in public. You'll also see a lot of people say, no, it's an excuse,

you know, people deal with loss all the time and they have to go into work. And that is absolutely true. Lots and lots of people are dealing with loss, and it's incredibly difficult regardless of what job you do. I think the thing that can be misunderstood about football is you don't need to drop 10% for it to have an impact on your performance. You need to drop 0.0.0.0.1%. And it will have a major impact on your performance because it's elite sport. It's the same as I can't remember who's comparison. It's the same as an F1 car. Think about all the perfectly forged components in an F1 car. If one tiny little widget goes wrong, then the F1 car breaks down. And that's elite sport. And so the Liverpool players may not be aware of the impacts

of the grief. Some of them, they'll all grieve in different ways. It's different times at different speeds and that, you know, that grief is an intensely personal thing. Most of us are fortunate enough not to be in jobs where when we are dealing with something like that, it's blatantly apparent because that tiny little thing in your mind that means you're not quite yourself doesn't have quite such a seismic, visible impact. Most of us can phone it in for a bit, to be perfectly honest. Professional football is car. challenges. Welcome to the world of Defender, with seating up to eight, ample cargo space and legendary off-road capability. It's built to make the most of every adventure. Learn more at

landrover.ca. Welcome to the brand new podcast series Rugby League Top Ten with me, Mark Chapman. It's where John Wilkin, Brian Noble and Jamie Peacock will discuss, debate and argue over lists of the best players, games, finals, iconic moments, and plenty of other. categories that will no doubt leave you screaming at your device. The most entertaining parts of our sport are these, the jeopardy the moments. He made rugby league look cool. Yeah, I mean that's the difficult thing

to do, I think. It is really, it is. Yeah, no. I think we've all managed to carry that battle. Rugby League top ten. Listen on BBC Sounds. This is the Monday night club with Mark Chapman. On the Football Daily podcast.

then forange posta coglu afterwards he spoke to stephen wife seven games in the 26 days since you took over it's been a it's been a roller coaster you to know and that was going to be a challenge even bigger challenge than you anticipated no not really i knew it was a big challenge walking in and and that's what it is and there's nothing wrong with that i mean i don't get why people kind of think that this is something that um you know is a burden anyway i love a challenge the alternative is that i wouldn't you know be sitting at home watching the game and i don't want to do that I want to be in the middle of it. So that's where I am.

And the belief I had and the confidence I had going into the job hasn't wavered at one bit. Yeah, we haven't got the results in this period, but not through the lack of effort from the players or the lack of commitment to a different style of football. All those things are there. We've just got to get the results now and we've got two weeks to get that right.

Nature of the businesses, there always seems to be somebody in the spotlight. At the moment, it's burning brightly on you. Are you feeling that? And do you feel that that's fair bearing in mind how little time you've had so far? No, like I said, if I didn't want this, I wouldn't, you know, I had an option. I didn't have to take the roll.

So it's fine. If people want to assess me on, yeah, three and a half weeks work, there's nothing I can say that's going to change that. What I've seen and what I've felt in this last sort of period since I've taken over is that we're heading in the direction I want us to. The results don't reflect, I think, the way we've sort of embraced what we want to do. but the results will come and in the meantime it's a struggle and it's a fight

and there's nothing wrong with that there's nothing wrong with that we don't want everything sort of handed to us on a platter you've got to fight for things so I've fought for things my whole life so it's just another fight that I love to be in the middle of

where'd you stand on all of that Chris honestly when any of you any of you ever heard a fan base singing for their own manager to be sacked after six games I found that ridiculous. I think there's an entitled element to the Nottingham Forest Support,

the recent success and their clear love for Nouno, and I get that, and I do understand that. But, uh, hang on, they're not in, just to rewind that a little bit. They're not entitled because of qualifying. Isn't it more Nuno going here?

Yeah, but that's not Angie's fault. No, I know it isn't. But the fans didn't think that there was anything wrong under Nuno in the way that they were going and therefore would resent. Not resent, but maybe have a problem with whoever was coming in unless they hit the ground running. They don't like their stepdad.

That's completely natural. But the situation here is you can't pin that on Posterodoulou. There are two separate things going on there. And I get that it's difficult and complicated and the fans will be furious at the loss of it. of Nuno because, I mean, it was weird watching Nuno at the Emirates on Saturdays. You're sort of watching and thinking, you're the

Nottingham Forest Manager, what are you doing here? You're in the wrong place. But I think taking that out on Poster Codlou is counterproductive. I think what a forest fan would say, if Max was here, I think what he would say is that the results and the performances haven't really done anything to endia Poster Codlou to the fan base. But it still feels very early

not to be kind of giving him the benefit of the doubt and seeing if you could make a bit of difference I think would Raffer at Everton have they turned on it I think they might have turned on him before he managed any games to be honest Yeah

The Were you there Connor No no I wasn't at Everton then But obviously I thought yeah They'd gone before it'd even started Raffer, do you know what I mean That was always saying What I can say about this situation I think is

I find it bewilders me the way they're asking, they're singing for his name. Do you know how hard it is to change from... So Nuno was a transition manager. Nuno was a counter-attack manager. He done it with us at walls. He's done it at Fowse. Wherever he's been successful,

that's how he's played. And he plays with Flyers on the wing, Alanga, Hudson, Adoy, Wood down the middle. And you can see it now at West Ham what he's trying to do. Full Krug, Somerville, Joward Bowen. Exactly the same. But to go from his style of play to Posta Coglu style of play

in the space of, I don't know how long, it's seven games, I think it is, Roryos, whatever it is. that is unbelievably hard I don't care what anybody says that's unbelievably hard and I know POSCoggle is now playing three at the back and all this

but for a team to do that and then players within that dressing room to completely flip that way of playing on your head and go the complete opposite way that is so hard and I don't understand why the fans are doing it but I understand they love Nuno I love Nuno when I was at Wools

he didn't want him to leave Wools he's that sort of manager but to not give Postercoglu time is beyond me it really is but from a to try and look at it from a fan's perspective. And Chris, you're a Nottingham Forrest fan.

Well, you were last season. I was until the abuse that Ange took on Thursday night. I'm taking myself out with that now. But if you're going to put yourself in a fan's position here, Forrest had it as good as they had had it in 30 years. They enjoyed their manager, they enjoyed their players, they enjoyed their football, they enjoyed the success that they had had.

I know they thought it might have been a little bit better for them towards the end of last season, but still a successful season. And therefore, there will be anger at probably a lot of people at how it just appears to have been tossed away at the moment. All of that momentum has gone.

And they've, and I suppose they've brought in a manager haven't they, Chris, who is quite combative and had a very up and down season last season, depending on your point of view with a European trophy compared to how it went in the league. It all just goes into this melting pot where you can understand the frustration. I can, but, you know, it happened.

It doesn't help anybody, I know, but. But, you know, they love Nuno, and Nottingham Forest fans love the owner, Maranakis, because he's a very hands-on owner, you know, he's there, he's visible, they absolutely adore him. But he's made this decision, as Connor quite rightly says, to go with a polar opposite. And then you think, well, there needs to be an element of patience.

And in fairness to Poster Cogler at the weekend, you know, I was there at the Newcastle game. He set up to contain and counterattack. Their issue was they couldn't get up the pitch. And, you know, Newcastle, it's, you know, not an easy game to go up to St. James's Park, you know, after what happened on Thursday night, the pummeling, which Ange Postercoglu took. But, you know, I think there were signs that, not signs, but it showed that he can play a different way. Newcastle ended up suffocating them and deserved to win.

But any manager needs time, it's barely been in the job for four weeks. I just, I don't see this lasting long. I don't see it ending well for Ange Poster Coglue just based on, I don't think, I don't think the Nottingham Forest fans in the main will, we'll change the mind about him. But I think it's deeply, deeply unfair and it just sort of sums up where we're at in the game now about how short term, you know, people think. And I don't, you know, I don't think that that's right. Everybody needs time to build.

And, you know, if Ange doesn't get time, then, you know, which it looks like that'll be the way. That's unfair on him. Coventry went top of the championship on Saturday, a 5-0 win against Sheffield Wednesday. They're the only team in the 92 to remain unbeaten in the league. Their goal difference, I'm going to do this one. I think their goal difference is plus 20. And the next highest in that league is Middlesbrough, who are second, and they are plus six. So, Katie Stafford, member of the Sky Blues fan cast, this is a joyous time.

to be a Coventry fan. Yeah, it's unbelievable. The whole city is bouncing. In my lifetime, I've never known a start like it. It's just absolutely fantastic. To say that Coventry are flying is an understatement because they're not even just beating teams. They're demolishing teams.

So we played Birmingham City a week last Saturday, 1-3-0. Travel to Millwall, 1-4-0, and then went to Sheffield Wednesday for a half-12 pick-off on Saturday and beat them 5-0. So that's not a bad week, is it? I know. I mean, it's a nigh on perfect week, isn't it really? Take us back to when he was appointed in November 2024, when there were mixed feelings about his appointment, weren't there?

Yes, and I think that, you know, there's no disrespect because Mark Robbins had an unbelievable tenure and people will say now that they will always love Mark Robbins for what he did for the club. He saved the club and he brought the club back up to the challenge, championship from, you know, rock bottom of league two. But it was a new chapter and it's time to move on. I would say that, you know, everybody now is fully behind Frank Lampard. Frank Lampard's brought exciting, forward-thinking, attacking football to commentary. And they are a joy to watch.

He has fans on the edge of their seats and they are scoring for fun. And there's not much more as a fan base that you can want. You can acknowledge everything that Mark Robbins did. And there was a lot of anger and sadness at the time. But time is a healer, isn't it? And football is a little bit of a fickle sport as well. You know, when the results start coming in. A little bit. Yeah.

When the results start coming in, then, you know, it makes it makes it a lot easier. So we can always say thank you to everything that Mark Robbins did, but it's a new chapter now, and Frank Nampas doing a fantastic job. What do you make of... Of Frank. Well, of Coventry on the Frank. I think they're doing fantastic. First and foremost, of Frank, I think he's amazing.

I had him at Everton. He signed me at Everton. I think I'm so happy for him in terms of how they've started because he obviously had a tough couple of years at Everton and then had that little spell at Chelsea as well after. So to see him doing so well, I think for me, first and foremost, it's amazing to see because before being a football manager and how good he is as a football manager, and obviously Katie is seeing first hand now what he's like,

he's an unbelievable person. He's a brilliant guy to sit and have a conversation with. So you want really good people to do really well. and the atmosphere has created there, just seems unbelievable. I was going to ask you, Katie, just there, when he was going into the job, and we spoke a bit about it on this kind of show a few times, about he was going into a good job, wasn't he?

Mark Robbins left it in a good place, didn't he, in terms of the job he's took on, and he seems to have taken it to another level. Am I right there in saying that? Yeah, definitely. I don't think the squad was in a particularly bad place. Anybody that's followed commentary for a while knows that they always have very slow starts for the season.

it's just that over the years the expectation has got greater since reaching the playoff final against Luton taking Manchester United to penalties so there's come quite a big expectation on the club so when Coventry was sitting near the bottom end of the table the owner was thinking we need to shake it up

he inherited a brilliant squad it's just that he needed to get them firing in different ways and I think that sometimes when a manager has been at a club for so long players almost feel like they don't have to prove themselves maybe a little bit as much and everything becomes a little bit complacent and I think Lampard came in and shook things right up and people had to fight for their places again and you look at them now and there's a real bond between Lampard and the players and there's a real

unity between the players and the fans and you know as a player yourself what that's like and that is what the key to the dressing room is if you're going to get promoted. Katie is this Coventry have been through so much over the last 20 years. It hasn't been a genuinely, like, quite sad story for football as a whole. Is this the most kind of optimistic that the city that the clubs felt, I mean, I'm guessing in your lifetime, maybe? Yes. So we got relegated from the Premier League when I was only a couple of months old. So, um, do we call your jinx? I'll blame them, my mum and dad. But yes, definitely. And I think that, is almost a little bit unnerving for commentary fans at the moment

because they don't really know what it's like to start the season so well because now the pressure is on us and they have to keep the momentum if they're going to really push for automatics. I think if you speak to most commentary fans, the dream would be to do it automatically because playoff heartbreak has become a little bit too common. And yes, it might be the best way to go up, but it's also the worst way to lose.

So at the moment, everybody's just taken in their stride, trying not to get carried away, but like you said, we've had such a difficult 10, 15 years. It was only a couple of, well, about two months ago now that Doug King and the owner actually bought Coventry Building Society Arena, and for the first time in 20 years, Coventry City owned their stadium. So everything just seems to be coming together, and it's just a really good feel-good factor at the moment around the club. Was it a tricky summer because of the disappointment last season of the,

the playoffs and did you see yourself be or the Coventry fans being as optimistic now as you know you you could have been really um i think the biggest thing for commentary over the summer was keeping hold of key players jack rodoney for example you know we only signed mac rhymes in january but he's been an unbelievable signing had you right we've got so many great players that we've managed to keep hold of my biggest concern when i left to the stadium of light after the playoffs was how they bounce back mentally because for some of those players, it's the second time they've lost out of the playoffs.

But I don't think it's been an issue at all, if anything. I think maybe the picture might have been in the dressing room and it's been a little bit of a push for them. Frank's been like, you know, we're not going to leave it to the last minute to build for a playoff push. Let's set the standard and let's go for it all season. Thank you very much for being with us.

Katie, thank you. Thank you. That's it for Monday Night Club Extra. a thanks to Chris Rory and Connor. 5 live sports WSL. And what a game of football it is to kickstart this new WSL season.

That's the only goal and she is able to just pick her sport. Curls this way past the best goalkeeper in the division. BBC Women's Football Weekly. The latest news, insights and analysis from across the women's game.

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