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Libero

Libero

By: Libero
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About this listen

 This is another podcast about football. But it is also not really, when you think about it, about football. It is about the football industry, about that gauzy web of characters who determine how the game is consumed, about why we think what we think about the world's most popular pastime. Libero is a free-form discussion group featuring a rotating cast of guests, all of whom have spent longer than they probably realise writing and talking about football, and all of whom nurse a particular bias against your specific club.

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Libero Social Sciences
Episodes
  • Libero 017: Bring On The Mezzanine

    Libero 017: Bring On The Mezzanine
    May 16 2025

    On today’s Libero, Jonathan Wilson, Jack Pitt-Brooke and Miguel Delaney start by looking forward to Saturday’s FA Cup final. Everyone knows that the final is no longer the climax of the English football season, but the big question is why? They look at the rising prominence of the league in the 1980s, the advent of the Premier League in 1992 and Manchester United’s decision to pull out in 2000.


    The following Saturday at Wembley is the Championship play-off final between Sunderland and Sheffield United. (32:20) Jonathan talks about his personal connection to this game, and the realities of supporting a team with little chance in the top flight. Jack asks whether this really is such a big game any more, given the struggles of promoted teams to make an impact in the Premier League. Is there any hope beyond just become a yo-yo club, or in Jonathan’s phrase, a ‘mezzanine club’?


    Produced by: Tom Bassam

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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    53 mins
  • Libero 016: Don Carlo

    Libero 016: Don Carlo
    May 14 2025
    On today’s episode of Libero, Rory Smith, John Brewin and James Horncastle wonder whether anyone not named Carlo Ancelotti can make sense of the modern Real Madrid, and assess the prospects for Xabi Alonso at the Bernabeu. In part two (33:36) James also takes great pleasure in decreeing that Ancelotti’s appointment as Brazil manager is proof of the ultimate triumph of Italy in determining the game’s dominant culture.

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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    54 mins
  • Libero 015: The Greatest Champions League Semi Of All?

    Libero 015: The Greatest Champions League Semi Of All?
    May 9 2025

    There was nowhere else to start than San Siro after the Champions League semi-final between Inter and Barcelona. Was it the best of all? Why are semis over two legs usually miles more entertaining than finals? Jonathan Wilson, Miguel Delaney and John Brewin share their memories, and hail gambling man Hansi Flick as football’s greatest ringmaster.


    After that (16:55): a missive from Mexico triggers a conversation on the cult of the football hipster. Is that era over? Or did books like Wilson’s 'Inverting the Pyramid' trigger an enduring legacy of earnest investigation into Sparta Rotterdam’s use of Wiel Coerver’s methods and the like? We lounge on Athletic Club cushions to consider the fashion(!), the music and the writing a wider perspective on what football has added to modern culture.


    Produced by: Tom Bassam

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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    49 mins

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