You're listening to the Footglitch Podcast.
Love football, learn English.
Do West Ham fans play down their victory over Ipswich Town?
Is Tomáš Socek loved or hated by the West Ham fans?
How come the struggling West Ham are above Manchester United in the Premier League table?
And what does being Spursy mean?
Hello everyone, welcome to another episode of the Footglitch Podcast.
My name is Denik Lukas and this is a podcast for all football enthusiasts
who want to develop their English listening skills and expand their vocabulary.
And today I'm joined by Ben from the To The Point English YouTube channel.
Ben, welcome to the Footglitch Podcast.
Hi, Denik. Thank you for having me again. It's good to be here again.
It's a pleasure to have you first time on this brand new podcast.
Yeah, on the brand new podcast. It's my first time. That's right.
We have spoken before. You've appeared on my YouTube channel and we've spoken before.
But yes, it's a pleasure to be here, as I said.
You know what's funny? Because obviously, as we record this, we can see each other, right?
This is also, this will be posted on the Teachers Denik YouTube channel as well.
But the people who are listening to this as an audio, they can't see us.
But the funniest thing that you immediately notice is that you,
the true hammer, the true West Ham fan, you don't have a West Ham shirt on.
And me, someone who is sort of just supporting West Ham as a second team, I do.
What's going on there? I don't know. I'm embarrassed, to be honest.
I couldn't find my West Ham shirt. I didn't.
I took it to England when I went a couple of a few weeks ago and I couldn't find it.
So I am a true West Ham fan.
I've been 48 years supporting West Ham, but I just don't have it.
48? Wow.
Well, since I was born, yeah.
My family supported West Ham, so it's not like it was a choice.
But probably when I was six or seven, it's when I knew what it was all about.
I started to understand what supporting a football team was and I kind of chose West Ham.
West Ham were chosen for me.
I guess there are two options.
Like when your father supports a club, obviously they are going to dress you up as a West Ham fan.
They might buy you those small shirts, small West Ham shirts, take you to the stadium, all that.
But there must come a point, right, when you are sort of in your puberty, when you are a teenager,
when you have a choice, you're kind of on a crossroad.
Will I follow this really for real or am I going to rebel?
I do something different from what my father is doing because maybe I don't like my father or whatever reason there is, right?
Yeah, I think a lot of people, adolescents or teenagers,
they want to really establish their own identity and distance themselves from their parents in a lot of ways.
But my dad was never really a fanatic footballer, or isn't, but when we were young.
So it wasn't like he pressured me to support West Ham.
It was just I was born in the East End of London or on the outskirts,
close to the East End of London, which is West Ham area, and my cousin supported West Ham.
And it was in the late 70s, early 80s, it was a good time to be a West Ham fan anyway.
We were actually, we won a couple of FA Cups, we were in Europe and playing entertaining football.
And we were everyone's second team at that time, or first team.
But it's like everybody sort of supported, well, not Tottenham, but others, or Arsenal or Chelsea.
But my United fans maybe used to follow West Ham.
It's not the case so much anymore.
But at that time, we were a popular team in England.
Of course. Well, I think you are still a popular team in England, one of the bigger teams, not the biggest teams, not the top six teams,
but one of the well-established teams in the Premier League.
And obviously, the reason I am supporting West Ham, or I would say I have a soft spot for West Ham, is the Czech players.
You know it, my listeners know it.
I think it's an easy link to make there, an easy connection.
So let us start by having a look at the results of this week's Premier League matches.
So I'm going to share my screen for those of you that are watching us on the YouTube channel.
You will be able to see. Here we go. I'm going to make it slightly bigger.
And as we can see, there were two matchdays.
Crystal Palace beat Liverpool, sorry, Crystal Palace, nil, Liverpool won.
That was the first Saturday game.
Then Arsenal 3, Southampton 1.
Brentford 5, Wolves 3.
Leicester 1, Bournemouth nil.
Man City 3, Fulham 2.
West Ham 4, Ipswich 1.
Yes, get in there.
That's the game we're going to talk about.
Everton nil, Newcastle nil.
Aston Villa nil, Manchester United nil.
Chelsea 1, Nottingham Forest 1.
Brighton 3, Tottenham Hudson 2.
So these were the results.
Does anything stand out for you there?
For me, there are a couple of results that stand out.
I'm going to start with the Brighton Spurs match because that's just...
I don't know if your listeners will be familiar with the adjective Spursy,
but that's just the most Spursy match ever.
I know that Spurs were winning 2-nil or nil-2 at half time, I think,
and then they ended up losing 3-2.
So they threw away that lead, which as a West Ham fan, I do find that hilarious.
Of course.
As an Arsenal fan, it's even better.
Yeah.
Spurs fans are so cocky.
I have a couple of friends who are Spurs fans and they're particularly cocky.
So I don't know if they represent all Spurs fans,
but it is a typical Spurs result.
I read a statistic that Spurs have the record for the most times...
for the team that has thrown away a 2-nil lead the most times in the Premier League.
Imagine having a record like that.
Yeah.
That doesn't even include the match against West Ham a few years ago
when they were winning 3-nil with 10 minutes to go
and West Ham scored three goals in the last 10 minutes, so finished 3-3.
I remember that game. I watched that game.
Lanzini in the last minute. It was fantastic.
Lanzini scored the equaliser.
Scorcher, yeah.
All right. Well, for me, I see the Brentford Wolves game.
That's eight goals in a game. That's amazing, actually.
Kudos to those two teams, even though Wolves are bottom of the league right now.
But that's a spectacle for the fans.
Yeah. If they're scoring goals, they should be all right at the end of the season.
The problem is obviously the defence,
they're losing 5-nil or 4-nil.
For me, that's more worrying, obviously.
But if they're scoring goals, then they will win a few matches, I would think, at some point.
A couple of boring 0-0 results.
Goalless draws. Aston Villa United have it in Newcastle.
Not much to speak about there, I guess.
Well, I didn't see those matches, but I know that Pickford,
because I have Pickford in my fantasy team and he saved a penalty,
so he got plenty of points.
But I don't know if they were entertaining matches or not.
Obviously Man United are struggling still this season.
I think West Ham are above Man United in the league table now, so it always feels good.
Which is an achievement in itself.
Yeah.
Well, speaking of West Ham United, you beat Ipswich 4-1.
Yeah.
So now I've heard the opinion that this is only Ipswich.
So where do you stand on that?
Well, I haven't seen much of Ipswich this season, if I'm honest.
But I've read a lot about them in the last few days.
People are generally saying they're not that bad.
I hope they're not that bad, because when you beat a team 4-1
and everyone just says the other team were rubbish,
it takes away a lot of the merit from West Ham in this case.
But I don't think Ipswich are that bad.
There are no really bad teams in the Premier League this season, I don't think.
I mean, it's still early and maybe we'll see by the end of the season
that there really are some awful teams.
But I don't think Ipswich are that bad.
I think they're going to be OK.
They weren't good. They weren't great.
I mean, the first half was pretty even, but in the second half we were by far the better team.
But I think we played particularly well.
I think finally it looks like things are starting to click for West Ham with a new manager.
We were a better team, obviously, but Ipswich will be OK in my opinion.
I have a soft spot for Ipswich, actually, because although I was born in London,
I grew up in a village in Cambridgeshire, which is East Anglia, and Ipswich are relatively local.
Ipswich and Norwich are not far away.
Obviously, Ipswich are a newly promoted team, but they used to be regulars in the Premier League in the past,
but they haven't been around for a long time.
So it was obviously a huge achievement for them to be back.
But you should be beating. West Ham should be beating teams like that.
What I think made this a bit more, let's say, tough was the fact that
you hadn't been playing particularly well this season.
You have a new manager, as you said, and I think your fans, the fan base, started to get a bit nervous about this.
And they seem to be a bit unstable, your fans, in my experience,
because you've achieved a lot in the last few years.
And still a lot of your fans don't seem to be a very happy folk.
Well, it's true. I was worried. I was nervous before the match.
As you said, we should be beating teams like Ipswich, but I wasn't that confident because we haven't started well.
I mean, we've had some difficult matches. We've played Aston Villa, Manchester City, Chelsea, if I remember rightly.
But even against the lower teams, we haven't been doing great. So I wasn't confident.
But I also have to say, I think, I don't know if this is true of all team supporters,
but I do feel that the younger supporters have a lot less patience and a lot more demanding.
We're going through still in a period of transition. We were with Mois. We had Mois as the manager for three years.
And now we've got this Lopetegui, the Spanish manager, and we've bought a lot of new players.
And we've sold some players. It's a transition period. So I think we need to be patient.
That was the seventh match, wasn't it? I think of the season.
Something like that, Ben. But there's always this phrase that managers use and pundits, trust the process.
But it has almost become toxic. A lot of fans cannot stand it.
I've noticed that nobody likes to hear that. Trust the process. It's like a swear word or something.
Yeah, I think Lopetegui, West Ham manager, said, judge me in May.
Judge me by where we are in May. So he's saying I need the whole season. And I think that's fair.
Yeah, of course. I think it has a lot to do with there are so many YouTube channels and podcasts and talking and analyzing everything.
Every day they have to make a video and they have to invent something to talk about.
So they start criticizing the manager or criticize. I watch West Ham YouTube channels and they're informative or they're interesting.
But they need to be controversial. They need clickbaits. And all that creates that sort of atmosphere.
And there's almost a division then within the fan base. And I've noticed it.
And for that reason, I think this game had sort of more importance than it possibly should have, because it almost seemed like a must win game for your manager.
Yeah, I don't think it seemed like that. I don't think it was. I think the owners of West Ham have a bad reputation, but actually they are quite loyal to their managers.
People were calling for Moyes' head a year ago, really. But they stuck with him maybe a little bit too long. I don't know.
But I think they dealt with the whole Moyes situation quite well. I think they respected him and respected the fans.
I was happy that he left, but I think it was the right time. I don't think it was too early or too late.
And I'm sure that West Ham owners will give Lopetegui, I think, well, I can't be sure about anything, but I think until the end of the season, unless we're really in an expert relegation battle, that may make a difference.
If you believe everything you read on Twitter or X or here on podcasts and YouTube channels, you'd think that every match is a win or lose, a do or die. It's not the case.
I think we will get a bit carried away. But again, having said that, I wouldn't say we needed to beat Ipswich, but I would have been very worried if we hadn't beaten Ipswich. In the end, we beat them and we beat them well.
It was the kind of result we really wanted to see.
That's right. A comfortable 4-1 win. And so, you know, after those few games, would you say that Lopetegui has its own style, tactic? Is there something you've noticed?
And how is he different from the previous manager David Mois in your books?
Well, at first, the first few matches, really up until Ipswich, it wasn't clear. It was a bit confusing. It was like he didn't know what formation to play or is making changes very early in the match, which that's the big difference between him and Mois.
Mois would always wait too long. We could be losing and he wouldn't make any changes until the 80th minute or the 85th minute. It's like he'd send Danny Ings on the striker with five minutes left.
For the last corner.
Exactly. Lopetegui is the complete opposite. He's made changes at half time. I think even in the first half, he made a substitution and not for injury. So that's kind of gone a bit too far to the other extreme.
That just suggests he doesn't know what he's doing when he puts the initial line up of the first 11 players and then he's making changes so early in the match.
It's like, did you know what your plan was? But having said that, as I said, he needs time and I think he's getting to know the players and which players should play in which position.
And yeah, I think he's quite defensive. He's not that different to Mois, but he seems to be less risk adverse. I think he's more willing to attack.
He's a possession based sort of manager. He likes to keep possession unlike Mois who was sort of more counter attacking, right?
Yeah, Mois was very defensive and ironically we had one of the worst defensive records in the Premier League last season and we didn't really start this season that well, but I think now we have a really good defense.
And yeah, I think he likes, he's a Spanish manager and I live in Spain and I've always wanted West Ham to have a Spanish manager.
I wouldn't have chosen him necessarily, but I'm 100% behind him and I want him to do well.
And yeah, Spanish managers are more tactical, more technical minded, more about possession. And yeah, I'm cautiously optimistic with Lopetegui. I think he can potentially do good things and I think we have a really good strong squad now.
So let's see what he can do with it.
Fair enough. Of course, I have to ask you and you knew I was going to ask you this. I need to ask you about the Czech players because as you know, I'm Czech.
So the reason I started supporting West Ham is the Czech players. So we have got Vladimir Zoufal and Tomáš Souček at the club.
So what, where do you see, where do you see these two players right now and what sort of future do you think they have? It looks like Vladimir Zoufal's days at West Ham might be numbered, right?
Because now we have this new player, Visaka, Zoufal's contract is running out. I think at the end of the season he will be a free player. So his days seem to be numbered.
What do you think?
Yeah, well, first I'll say I love Zoufal and Souček. I think most, pretty much all West Ham fans love them.
They're the type of players, you know, really hardworking players. They never seem to complain. They just do the job.
You know, they've had their ups and downs. Zoufal especially is really good. He has months where he's really good, West Ham player, and then months where he kind of goes off the boil a little bit.
It's a bit inconsistent. So they're really popular players and I think they're going to be remembered as West Ham legends, whatever happens this season.
Zoufal, yeah, I think he may be on his way out. One Visaka has taken his position and Zoufal has done nothing wrong. So it's kind of sad.
I have to admit Visaka is a good player. So I mean, at least there is some proof, there's some evidence, and he's faster, he's more sort of physical, he seems to be defending better.
The only thing I would say Zoufal is good at and you know, you might lack Visaka is the crossing ability, which I think Zoufal is particularly good at and the long throws.
But I think that that might be a good trade off for you. But now let's talk about Tomáš Souček, because I have to be honest with you.
I found it really hard to hear the YouTube videos produced by different YouTube channels dedicated to West Ham. I have been really struggling with what I had to hear at times because of the way Tomáš Souček was treated.
And I just couldn't believe it, couldn't understand it. And I always wanted to sort of argue with these people, but there was no point because it seems like 99% of the fan base where a lot of times against Tomáš Souček didn't want him in the team.
Every time there was a new sort of signing on the way, they would always be excited about them wanting those new signings to replace Souček. I didn't understand. But now, again, it seems like they are warming up to Souček.
So explain this to me because I am so baffled by this.
You should be baffled. It doesn't make sense. I think there are a few reasons for that. As you said, it seems like 99% of the fan base are against Souček. That's not the case.
Again, that's sort of the YouTube channels and Twitter and everything, social media exaggerating things.
And I think even though a lot of the fans don't understand what he brings to the team because they don't understand football, I think they still like him.
But the thing is Souček is a strange player. He doesn't have those silky skills. He has scored some really good goals and he scores regularly. He is Mr. Consistent. He's, again, never done anything wrong.
He even scored some beautiful goals for you. This is what I don't understand. Why everybody keeps saying he can't pass the ball, he's not so pleasing on the eye and you always compare him to player Paketa.
Why would you even compare those two players? These are completely different players coming from a completely different country. Brazil, everybody is good with their feet in Brazil, right? So I still don't get it.
I mean, Souček doesn't look... You said Paketa. He's just naturally skillful, Brazilian as you said, and he's almost the complete opposite to Souček in that he is a fantastic player, but he's not consistent. He's like sometimes you get really frustrated with Paketa because he doesn't track back or he doesn't...
Like he switches off sometimes in matches, whereas Souček is always there. He's always in the right place and it just doesn't look like a footballer as much as Paketa does. For example, he looks a little bit clumsy.
He does. I give you that. Like his sort of running style is a bit different. But then again, he has the stats. He does the job. He's very effective in each of the boxes, each of the two boxes, the defensive one, the offensive one. He scores goals.
He often bails you out when you need a goal. He's there for you. He's proven himself. He's more consistent. Yeah. So I honestly, I don't know what to say. I think personally, the way I see it, Wesem needs Souček.
But we will see. We will see. It looks like Lopetegui. I thought maybe Lopetegui would take him out of the team or maybe even sell him because I wasn't sure if he would be convinced by him.
Because we've bought a lot of midfield players this season. We've got a lot of options in midfield. But I think Lopetegui, he did drop him for a couple of matches, but I think he's realized now. He's understood the value of Souček.
There is more to it than just... I still don't get it, Ben. I don't think people understand. Why is he... Okay, I know the Czech national team is not the best team in the world.
Definitely not. And we are struggling a little bit at the moment as well. But still, to be a captain of the national team, you have to have certain even leadership qualities to become that guy that all other players are going to follow.
And Souček has that, right? He has this sort of aura around him. And he is a likable guy and he will give you everything. He will almost die for you on the pitch.
And he has the qualities that I would say a West Ham fan might appreciate. The hard work, the grit, the never give up attitude, doesn't dive. He has everything that a West Ham fan should want.
But yet, yet, something has gone wrong. But now, it seems to be going in the right direction again.
I honestly think the vast majority of West Ham fans like Souček and understand his value and what he brings to West Ham.
I know what you are saying. You do get these stupid YouTube channels. And it's click bait, as you said. They need a scapegoat. They need a target.
And because people like Kudos and Takeda and Bowen, they are more popular, especially with younger fans, I think, because they are more skillful. They do more spectacular things.
As I said, Souček has scored some nice goals. But generally, he is, you know, the YouTube, what do you call those videos?
YouTube warriors.
No, I mean, the videos where they start compilation videos where they show the best moments of the careers, like the highlights, the best moments.
But do you remember the goals Souček scored last year?
Yes.
Do you remember the kind of goals he scored? Volleys, top corner finishes. I still don't understand this because he has skills too.
He has skills too. They are just different skills and the kind of skills, as you say, maybe young people don't appreciate. Heading skills and stuff like that.
No, but I honestly think if we did a poll of West Ham fans, like true West Ham fans, not just the TikTokers and YouTubers and things, I think you'd see that he's popular and respected and he will be remembered as a West Ham legend, I think.
I hope so.
If he stays for another couple of seasons, he definitely will be.
It would be nice if he won something with you, make a couple.
Yeah, I mean, that would be, that will be heroes then to win the FA Cup.
Make a statue of him.
Yes.
For me, it's difficult to talk to West Ham fans about Souček. I mean, you are a reasonable one, but to other West Ham fans, because obviously I will naturally be biased and I will come across as biased and I am biased.
Yeah, yeah, of course.
I could be biased with Vladimir Tsofal yet. I don't feel in the same way about him. Of course, I would love him to play and, you know, get his place back over Bissaka, but I admit when I see proof and evidence that, you know, that Bissaka deserves to play now.
So I don't see the same with Souček when people say he shouldn't play. I don't, it makes absolutely no sense to me because he's just, he should, he has to play, in my opinion.
I think it's got a lot to do with when we sign new players, people get, fans get very excited, oh, we've signed this and where is he going to play? They can't take Kudus out, they can't take Paquetá, they can't take Bo, oh, well it's Souček.
Let's sacrifice Souček, yeah.
And sometimes it happens, but a couple of games later he's back in the team because he's proven, I think he's a type of player that, there are very few football players like Souček, I think he's special and it's difficult to find someone who can play that way.
So, you know, we keep signing more and more midfield players and somehow, well, not somehow, but Souček survives, he's still there all these seasons later, so he's doing something right.
Whatever you think, whatever you think you know about football, the manager knows more than we do. So if he's there, it's because he's good.
I have to say it's lovely to talk to someone reasonable about this, if we can see both sides.
Right. We have the international break now and after that I believe you're going to play against Tottenham.
So that will be a tough game for you, right?
Yes, I think there are tougher games in the Premier League now, but yeah, I mean Tottenham is always a big game for West Ham.
They always say it's our cup final because we get very excited about it and they don't care so much, but it's a big game and they're a good team obviously, but they're struggling at the moment.
So I think we can get something from that match.
And here's the table, here's the Premier League table, Ben. So for those of you watching us on the YouTube channel, you will be able to see that Liverpool are top of the league.
Only one point clear of Manchester City and Arsenal though, who are right behind with 17 points, then three point gap Chelsea-Aston Villa.
Then we have Brighton in the sixth place, then Newcastle-Polham, Tottenham on 10 points, Nottingham-Forest-Branford, West Ham 12th with eight points.
Hopefully this gets better, but you are right. Manchester United also on eight points, but you have a better goal difference.
Yeah, and we're only two points behind Tottenham, so there's not a big difference there either.
I'm obsessed with Tottenham, aren't I? Of course.
Things could have been a lot worse. It's not the best start to a season for us, but we're 12th and not starting well.
So things should get better, I think, so we can start moving up the table and maybe get into Europe again this season.
But as I said, I think it's a transition season, so maybe we can be a bit more patient.
You can see quite a few games have been played and still it's very unclear what's going to happen in the relegation zone,
because I think there are a lot of teams there at the moment.
Of course, it looks like Southampton and Wolves with one point, that's not good, but then Crystal Palace only three points.
I've just realized that they didn't win a game yet this season. Crystal Palace of all teams. Wow.
Yeah, I didn't realize. There are four teams there that haven't won a match yet. Ipswich have drawn four, Crystal Palace have drawn three.
That's right. It's strange to see them. They had a good season last year, didn't they?
They've had a few good seasons, Crystal Palace, but struggling this year.
Exactly. All right, Ben, at this point on the Footgush podcast, I would be asking you about your hero of the week, your villain of the week and all that.
But actually, guys, I've decided to create a separate show about this and it's going to be broadcast live every Sunday at 8.30 p.m. Central European Time.
And I'm going to invite all of you to join to give us your heroes, teams, villains and takeaways of the week.
And join us in the comments, please. Every Sunday live. And so we're not doing it here, Ben. I hope you're OK with that.
No, no, no problem. I don't know. I don't pay enough attention to the other matches. I only think about West Ham.
So it doesn't matter on the show there. So it's been wonderful to talk to you, Ben. Thank you very much for accepting the invitation.
And yeah, I hope to be able to catch up with you again in the future. Yeah, definitely. I always enjoy it.
It's a pleasure. So thank you for having me. You're very welcome. Take care, Ben.
Thank you. Welcome back to the language corner.
If you've been listening to the Footgrish podcast for some time, then you will probably know that in this part of the show, I teach.
That's right, because I'm an English teacher. So my job is to teach. That's what I do for a living.
This podcast, of course, is something I do on the side. I do it as my passion project. OK, so let's do it.
Today, I'm going to take a look at five items of vocabulary.
And some of these phrases or idioms, sometimes even words, were used by myself.
And some of them were used by my guest, Ben. The first one.
The reason I have a soft spot for West Ham is the Czech players. That's right. Tomáš Souček, Wladimir Coufa are the reasons that I like West Ham.
And I watch their games. I will be honest with you, I watch most of their games because I really want to know how these Czech players will do in the Premier League.
We don't have that many players there right now. So you can imagine they are one of the reasons I like watching the Premier League as well.
But I'm looking at the phrase to have a soft spot for someone, which is another way of saying to like someone.
If you feel a strong liking for something or someone. That's basically what this means.
OK, I like it because to me it seems that this phrase is slightly gives you the idea that this liking is slightly less direct or maybe less obvious upon first sight.
And it's just very playful. It's a very playful phrase to use in the English language.
So I highly recommend learning this one to have a soft spot for West Ham.
I hope you guys have a soft spot for the Footgrish podcast. And if you do, don't forget to support it on my hero hero page.
The link is in the description. I want to see at least one one supporter of the Footgrish podcast there.
OK, one subscriber. Why not? We have to start somewhere, right?
OK, so here we go. Ben said I have a soft spot for Ipswich actually.
Right. So the same same item of vocabulary. Ben used exactly the same phrase. He's a copycat.
Just joking, Ben, if in case you are listening to this.
All right. I don't know if your listeners are familiar with the word Spursy.
Ben said this and then I looked it up for you.
Basically, of course, it refers to the team Spurs, right? To Tottenham Hotspur team.
We call them Spurs. And to be Spursy means to have a weakness or fragility in that you constantly fail to live up to expectations.
OK, and crumble. You crumble within sight of victory.
So you you're doing well in the game. Maybe you are one or two nil up.
And then you still manage to lose the game because when it comes to the important moments, you crumble.
Right. You bottle it. OK. And that's what being Spursy mean.
Nobody wants to be Spursy. It's a very negative phrase to use.
And it's football banter, right? Football teams, football supporters, they make fun of each other's teams.
It's quite common. It's quite normal.
So I'm sure Spurs supporters do exactly the same about West Ham or Arsenal.
OK. Then I said, I've heard that it's only Ipswich.
And I asked Ben, where do you stand on that?
So basically, I was speaking about the game, West Ham Ipswich.
And I've heard from a lot of West Ham fans that, you know, this is the kind of game they should be winning.
And it's only Ipswich, you know, a newly promoted team.
They should be beating them. Right. But I wanted to know Ben's opinion.
So I asked, where do you stand on that?
And this is a lovely way of asking someone for their opinion.
There are a few of these. For example, what do you make of this is another one.
Where do you stand on it? Where do you stand on that? Right.
So it's nice to vary your language, not to always use what's your opinion or what do you think.
OK. Where do you stand on that?
By the way, where do you stand on that game? West Ham Ipswich.
What did you make of it? What did you think of it?
What's your opinion on the game?
You see how many different expressions I can use and they all mean the same.
OK. People were calling for Moises head a year ago, really.
So when someone is calling for someone's head, I don't know, does this come from the medieval times
where people were chopping off people's heads?
Basically, this doesn't mean that.
It means that usually this is something that the fans are doing, right?
They are calling for their manager's head.
They are not satisfied with the coach, with the manager, and they want the manager to be punished.
So if you demand that someone is punished, right, typically by losing their job or their position
because they've done something wrong.
If you want that, if you demand a manager's resignation
or if you demand that the manager is fired by the owner, then you are calling for someone's head,
which is a lovely, lovely expression, as I said.
And I'm pretty sure that, for example, Manchester United right now, a lot of supporters are calling for Ten Hog's head.
It was kind of hard for me to say Ten Hog's head.
It's a tongue twister. It's a mouthful. Ten Hog's head.
Can you say that? Ten Hog's head. It's almost impossible to say.
Anyway, guys, I guess that's it.
Do you want one more? I have one more.
It looks like Vladimir Stouffel's days might be numbered.
I said that. I'm very proud of that phrase.
Because if someone's days are numbered, or in this case I said might be numbered, just to make it less certain,
it means that it looks like this player is bound to fail.
It looks like this player will fail.
And so if someone's days are numbered, this person will fail or he will end.
This person will end something. You know, it's not looking good.
Someone's days are numbered.
And that's exactly, unfortunately, Vladimir Stouffel's situation,
because he hasn't signed a new contract yet.
I still hope he will.
I still hope they offer him a new contract, even if it's just a one-year extension,
because it would be sad to see Vladimir Stouffel go.
But at his age, I also understand the club.
At the age of 32, you know, usually these players are not kept at the club for a long time.
But it is what it is.
OK, guys, this has been the Language Corner.
I have been Zdenek Lukas. Yes, that's still my name.
My guest has been Ben Gill from the To The Point English.
And one more thing, don't forget, I've started a new show, which I broadcast live.
That's right. Not like this podcast.
This podcast is pre-recorded, right?
I pre-recorded, then I edited and then I release it and I publish it.
But the live show is something different.
It's where I will be telling you, not just I, but my guests and I will be telling you our heroes,
villains, teams, takeaways and sometimes even vocabulary of the week.
That's right. It will be kind of freestyle, you know,
with a good atmosphere, hopefully.
We are inviting you guys to join in on the Teachers' Denek YouTube channel every Sunday at 8.30 p.m.
Central European Time.
Join in in the comments.
Give us your opinion.
Vent your frustrations from the weekend.
Come to tell us about the referee villains and also tell us about your heroes.
We want to know what your picks are.
Mostly I will be joined by my friend Nrup, who has been on this podcast,
but you know, we may have some other people as well.
It's the kind of show where there may be more voices at the same time,
not just one guest, but maybe three, four people.
We will see. He will see how popular it gets.
But you guys can come and support the show. Why not?
OK, that's all for today's episode of the Footgrish Podcast.
Thank you very much for listening and until next time. Bye bye.