Did Liverpool deserve to win the Premier League?
How sweet does this title feel for Liverpool
fans? Is Mohamed Salah more interested in breaking
records than the team? And what does to be short
of something mean? and today we are going to
talk about liverpool who have just won the premier
league title in season 24 25 and here with me
in the studio is none other than paul himself
the liverpool fan the friend of the podcast welcome
back paul and first of all congratulations thank
you Yes, come on, Liverpool. Champions 2025.
I'm happy about this. Of course you are. Big
celebrations yesterday. Let me just check something
quickly. Sorry. I wasn't sure I'm using my best
microphone. Is the sound okay, Paul? It seems
okay. Okay, great. For such an important and
iconic moment, I don't want to have a bad sound.
So, yes, Paul, this is fantastic. You beat Spurs,
Tottenham, which is nice. And I guess for that,
I think the title is in the right hands. You
beat Arsenal's biggest rival. So, of course,
we were hoping that we could challenge for...
for it and we could keep up with you, but honestly,
I think it was obvious in winter who was going
to win the title, don't you think? Not really.
I never felt like that. Maybe other people did,
but as a Liverpool supporter, I've been hurt
in the past and I think you're quite critical
of your own team sometimes. I could see that
Arsenal were playing well, so I was... I wasn't
100 % sure until recently, really. But yeah,
there must have been a point when you were like,
well, this is so close. It's only... Well, you
don't expect Arsenal to drop so many points.
I think it's Arsenal who've made it more comfortable
than it should be because I think when we last
spoke, I thought, no, I'm not that confident.
I think we had a bit of a lead. But we've been
stretching the lead without really playing so
well. Yeah, Arsenal have been dropping points
like 24 -7 pretty much, like mostly draws, occasionally
a defeat. And that's not good enough if you're
challenging for the title. So yeah, like I said,
the title is in the right hands, well -deserved.
And I think it must feel a little bit better
than that COVID season one, don't you think?
People can celebrate. I think for the players,
like Salah was saying, it feels better. But for
me, that was a big monkey off our back. So it
was 30 years until we had won it. That one was
a big release and it was much closer. I understand.
But this one must be also great because nobody
expected it as well. I don't think you were...
You were among the favourites to win at the beginning
of the season, especially because everybody was
talking about the fact that Jurgen Klopp had
left the club and now it's like a rebuild a little
bit, right? The new coach. But lo and behold,
you are the champions and by a country mile,
no one could match you. He has been so good.
Arne Slot. Wow. Honestly, every interview from
the day he walked in. as being spot on. I enjoy
listening to him. He gives a real insight into
the match. It's always calm. He's really humble.
I think what he's done, he's tweaked things.
He's changed a few things with how we play, but
he's demanded, I think, a really high standard.
I think that he said the number one thing that
he demands is work rate. He demands every player
to have maximum work rate and also to win their
duels. So in the midfield three, he demands that
those midfielders win their duels. And you've
seen with Gravenberg and McAllister and even
Sobozle, they've won the majority. If you have
results like that, it's easy to... Trust your
manager, trust the process, follow the manager
that is going to bring you the title. You know,
now it's such a... He has won everyone over,
the fans. He has really slotted in well. Remember
how we said that? I think you came up with that
one first. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Slotted in really
well, didn't he? His first season at Liverpool,
the first title, making himself immortal, you
could say. Who would have thought that he would
be a better coach than Jürgen Klopp, who seemed
a bit burnt out? Yeah, I think, yeah, he's proven
to be. But it was Jürgen himself who decided
to step away from the job. It wasn't like he
was still doing well in the job. But maybe he
recognised something in himself that he couldn't
commit. And he got it right. He got it right.
Spot on. Do you think he's celebrating? I haven't
seen a video, actually, but I'm sure he is. I
watched that speech he gave when he left last
year again, and that was incredible. Heartbreaking,
wasn't it? Yeah, just how he was sad at leaving,
but how magnanimous he was in how to welcome
the new coach. It was incredible. And new coach's
response was... When you won the title or after
you won the title, didn't he encourage the fans
to sing Jurgen Klopp? What was the song? Jurgen
Klopp. Yeah, which again shows the humility of
Slot and how smooth the transition has been.
Yeah, yeah, fantastic. So I don't know if we
can say a few things about this game against
Tottenham, which you won. 5 -1, very convincing
manner. I think you went 1 -0 down, didn't you?
Yeah, we did from a silly corner that we gave
away. Tottenham scored. But yeah, I never expected
Tottenham to win, even when we went 1 -0 down,
to be honest. You only needed a point as well,
didn't you? I know, so yeah. We only needed the
points from the remaining five matches. It was
like Slavia Prague. It was exactly the same.
Really? Yeah. And they also did it. They won
5 -0 their game. It's like being two metres away
from the hole in golf and having five chances
to pot it. It's like you have five match balls
and you are also the better player in that tennis
game. So, honestly... This must have been a perfect
night for you. It was the perfect scenario for
the team and the fans. I don't go to the stadium,
don't I? And I'm not in the city anymore, so
my mum is in the city. She went to the city centre
and she's 73. Did she video call you? No, she
never actually. I was thinking about should I
go to the city, but I have responsibilities here.
I think I will for the parade. So in a couple
of weeks, there will be a parade. Because they
don't have the trophy yet. The victory parade.
So it's a trophy which gets passed from the previous
champion? So City have to give it to you? Or
what's the deal there? I think so. They have
to return it, right? The trophy gets passed,
yeah. So this year, Paul, was such a weird one,
wasn't it? Manchester City, they completely fell
off. You have the likes of Tottenham United,
the worst season in years, right? And then, obviously,
Arsenal were trying, trying, but not really stood
a chance in the second half. I thought in the
second half of the season, you just completely
dominated the league. Just like you dominated
this game against Perth, going back to that.
i guess we could mention that gold that mike
allister scored that was a beauty wasn't it oh
yeah i love mcallister he is a little beauty
but um it was a great goal yeah it was a wow
goal it made it made you say wow yeah um what
an incredible footballer he he has been for liverpool
I think we have improved. So you mentioned how
it's been a strange season. I think Liverpool
have improved from last season. I feel like the
midfield is operating much better. The defence
is operating well. The forwards are operating
similar, I suppose, to last year. The forwards
and defenders, it's the midfield that's much
better. With Gravenberg at the base, McAllister,
I suppose, Jones coming in sometimes. I think
it's the midfield what's been the difference
for Liverpool. So we have improved slightly.
But you mentioned Manchester City, who've had
injury problems, and Arsenal. Both of these teams
have had injury problems, which you don't expect
them to have next year. You think about Manchester
City, Haaland, Rodri, the Ballon d 'Or winner.
Rodri, yeah. has hardly played for them. It happened
when he started complaining about the fact that
they play way too many games and that it leads
to injuries. And then it happened like the next
game or something. It was against Arsenal, wasn't
it, actually? Something like that, yeah. So,
yeah, you're right that injuries play the part
in this. But to be honest, still, these teams
should do much better. Yeah, I agree, though.
Yeah, I do think Manchester City... Yeah, OK.
It's been difficult. There's been a lot of forward
players for Arsenal. I think defensively, have
you been injured that much? You've lost a few
full -backs, but you've got enough defenders
to cover that. Your midfielders have... Odegaard's
been out for a couple of months, hasn't he? Yeah,
I feel like I agree with you. I think that Arsenal
should have enough... Firepower, as they say,
yeah. Yeah, so, I mean, it looks like we've lost
Paul for a second. Hopefully he is coming back.
But just to remind everyone, we are talking to
my friend Paul, a massive Liverpool fan, a huge
fan of this great club that has just won the
Premier League title and five games to go, which
is nice. Nice thing to do because now they can
just have fun in the remaining games. And they
won 5 -1 against Tottenham Hotspur, against the
Spurs, as we call them. And I also wanted to
ask Paul about Mohamed Salah, who scored one
of the goals. And he seems very happy about that.
Every time he scores, he feels happy about that.
So I will ask Paul when he comes back. because
we are recording this interview online, as I
do the vast majority of the Footgrish podcast
interviews. The advantage of that is that we
can then put it on the YouTube channel, on the
Teachers' Denik YouTube channel. So if you are
an audio listener, you also have the chance to
watch us talk about football on this YouTube
channel. But I have also done about two or three
episodes in real life. yeah like offline you
could say so yeah so the you know online usually
is reliable apart from a few moments and this
is one of those i think we we do have a little
issue There's no Paul, no guests, so I have to
be here by myself and improvise, which is all
right. Well, I could also remind you to support
the Footgrish podcast. Give the video on the
YouTube channel a like. You can write a review
on Apple Podcasts about the show. Give it five
stars and write what you think. Recommend it
to some potential viewers, English learners.
Who would like to improve their English through
football? And it looks like Paul is back. Welcome
back, Paul. Hey, sorry. No worries, no worries.
This is exactly how Arsenal have been playing
their season on and off. But it's good that we
have you back on now. I wanted to ask you about
Mohamed Salah, Paul, and this is what I promised
to the listeners that I would do. So he scored
his goal as well. He seemed very happy about
that. He did. He wants personal records, Mohamed
Salah. And I think Thierry Henry has the record
for most goal contributions, goals and assists,
which I think he is too short of at the moment.
Yeah. So I think he's desperate for that. Do
you think he's a bit too obsessed? Do you think
this could be sort of disruptive for the team?
If a player is chasing these personal accolades,
could it be disruptive? It could be, couldn't
it? I think most teams do it. If somebody is
going for the golden boot, most teams do kind
of look for that player to try and help him win
the golden boot. I think it won't disrupt. Liverpool
and Salah so much because we've won the league,
but also it assists as well. So you could see
it doesn't have to score. He just needs to assist
or score. So you could see yesterday he was desperate
to assist. So that can only be a good thing.
Yeah, absolutely. But now that means that he
will play the remaining games because sometimes
when the title is decided, the coaches can do
is try some new players or give the opportunity
to some youngsters. But I think Salah won't let
anyone in, right? True. And Chiesa, who has hardly
played because of that, because it's Diaz and
Gakpo on the left. Chiesa's hardly played because
Salah is going for records. So keep him in your
fancy football team. Yeah, he's my captain, of
course. What about his contract then? Is there
a chance he will stay? Has it already been decided?
It's already decided. He's staying. Van Dijk
is staying. Sorry, I haven't been including on
that one. So they are both staying. How long
did Salah sign a contract for? Two years. Well,
that's nice, right? Considering his age, that's
quite nice. Yeah, I think. I think it's good
for both of them and good for Liverpool as well.
I think Van Dijk has two more years, Salah has
two more years, definitely, maybe even more.
And Trent? Trent's going. Trent's going? Yeah.
Ah, to Spain or where? Trent's going, yeah. Did
you say rat? Yeah, I'm not happy about that,
Zenech. Ah, so you say rat. That means you think
he betrayed Liverpool? Yeah, I think he has.
I can't begrudge someone. He's 26, I think. Going
to Spain and playing for a football team in Madrid,
which is an amazing city for an amazing club.
I cannot begrudge him doing that. Well, I can't
because I'm calling him a rat. But he is a local
lad. He's wanted to captain the team. I feel
like Real Madrid are Liverpool's rivals. Yeah,
that is true. You're okay, Arsenal, Manchester
City, but Real Madrid, just as much as those
teams. And he's going to our rival. Liverpool
fans hate Real Madrid, really, because of how
they've beaten us in a couple of finals recently.
And he's known about this. He's known. I'm going
to run my contract down. I'm going to run my
contract down. I don't think Real Madrid would
pay a fee. They don't pay a fee for players.
Like Mbappe, they got for free. So they've said
to him, listen, run your contract down. We'll
have you. Is there a way to do it? Yeah. It's
pretty clever, to be honest. Clever business
from them. It's clever business from them. And
I suppose for the player, because they get the
signing on fee. They get like, I don't know,
20, 30 million signing on fee. Of course, the
player does, right? So it's very beneficial to
them as well. You say he's a rat, but at least
he's leaving on a high, right? He's leaving with
a title. You will always be part of the team,
right? The legend. Will he have a legend status
or not? No, no, no. No, no. Salah will, right?
That's for sure. Salah will. Yeah. Van Dijk will.
What about Darwin Nunes? Didn't he miss another
sitter in this game? He did, didn't he? He's
going. I think he's going. I think he'll be in
the Saudi league. I think Saudi tried to buy
him in January and it never happened. I think
we wanted to keep him just in case of injuries.
I think he will go to the Saudi league this summer.
Okay. Do you think they have wider goals there
in Saudi Arabia? That might help him, you know,
that might actually do some good. It's just his
decision making, isn't it? Like he has some good
attributes, but that chance the other day versus
Spurs, you thought, okay, you knew in his head,
he's thinking, I've got to pass it to Salah.
I've got to pass it to Salah. I've got to pass
it to Salah. But saying that, so his decision
making was okay. Passing to Salah is okay. But
the execution, it was just a terrible mess. Not
the best, not the best. I had a lesson today.
I was teaching my private student. I teach one
student from Belarus, of all countries. And he
mentioned something to me that I didn't know
about. Apparently, there was a funny moment in
the post -match when the players were celebrating
on the pitch. He told me that Darwin Nunes and
Mohamed Salah had some sort of situation where...
Mohamed said something to Nunez and it made Nunez
go crazy and run across the whole page. And then
everyone was speculating like what it must have
been. And there is a theory that says that he
reminded him of his bad scoring tally. But is
this, do you know anything about this or has
it happened or did my student make it up? Paul.
Ah, okay. I think we have lost Paul in the worst
possible moment because this was the most important
question of this podcast, quite possibly. I don't
know. It probably wasn't. But you know what?
I'm going to ask Paul off air and tell you in
the language corner. How about that? Is that
a good deal? All right, let's do it like that.
Welcome back to the Language Corner. In this
part of the show, as always, I'm going to be
teaching you something because I'm an English
teacher, so I might as well do my job. Let's
discuss the phrase to be short of something.
I was talking to Paul about Mohamed Salah and
Paul mentioned that Mohamed Salah had been chasing
records and the specific phrase he said is that
he is short of two assists. And that means he's
missing two assists to break a record or to reach
some kind of objective, right? So I think he's
short of two assists to equal. Was it? I can't
remember exactly who it was. Maybe Kevin De Bruyne
or someone like that. But if you are short of
something, it means you only need something to
get something else. So you are short of two assists.
It means you only need two assists. to do it.
The phrase short of means you don't have enough
of something. So I'm short of money means I don't
have enough money or I don't have money. I'm
short of patience means I don't have any patience.
So of course you can also be short of ideas.
If you're short of ideas then you don't know
what to talk about, you don't know which topics.
to address or to explore maybe. Sometimes it
happens on this podcast. Maybe I'm short of questions.
I don't know what questions to ask. I don't think
that happens that often, but it could happen,
right? Nobody is perfect. We are only human beings.
We are not robots. And perhaps I'm sometimes
short of likes on the YouTube channel. So that's
why I would like to encourage you to go there
and help me out. Click. the like button on the
YouTube channel if you are watching this as a
video. And yeah, I think that's it for today.
Thank you very much for listening and for being
faithful to the FootGlish podcast. And yeah,
I'll speak to you soon. Ah, not yet. Too soon,
Zdenek, too soon. Remember, there was a moment
in the middle of the... No, it was actually at
the end, at the very end of the interview when
Paul... unfortunately disconnected. It was actually
the second time in the interview. And I was asking
him a question. I was telling him about what
my private student had described to me after
the game against Liverpool. Apparently... Mohamed
Salah upset Darwin Nunez, who reacted in a crazy
way, started running after Salah, chasing him.
But Salah is a great sprinter, so I think he
couldn't catch up. But I wanted to ask Paul about
more details about that. But unfortunately, Paul
doesn't know, because I did ask him. after the
interview ended, and he said, I haven't heard
about it. So I did see the video, however, and
I can prove that this is not fake news. Okay,
so that's definitely everything for today's episode
of the Food Grish podcast. Thank you very much
for listening or watching. If this is YouTube,
and I'll speak to you soon. Take care, everyone.
Bye -bye.