Ranks FC - A Football Podcast

Hello Rank Squad! 

As we head into the last international break of the season, we're about to hit crunch time for 2025/26 in all of Europe's biggest leagues. With the end of the season imminent, the pressure is ratcheted up on teams up and down the table to get their respective jobs done wherever they find themselves within their competition, but certain players will be feeling the heat more than others, for a variety of different reasons. 

Dean and Jack both pick out five names - Dean from the Premier League, Jack from across the rest of the continental leagues - who have something to prove in the final stretch. Whether that be for their own futures at their clubs, for their personal legacies, for their next move to be the one they want, to push a club towards trophies, or to be the talisman in a fight for something else, it doesn't matter - we're discussing them all, on a journey that takes us from the top to the bottom of tables, and from youngsters starting out to legends coming to their close. 

It's Ranks! 

(If you're on the hunt some World Cup Qualifier bits and pieces ahead of the international action in this break, Jack was on the brilliant World Cup After Dark Podcast to talk the UEFA Thunderdome of contenders for those final spots)

And remember, if you’d like more from the Rank Squad, including extra podcasts every Monday and Friday (including our weekly Postbox taking a look at the whole weekend of football) and access to our brilliant Discord community, then why not join us here on Patreon?

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It's time for The Truth!

Sam and Dougie are back in the studio to take a look at the big debate that's beginning to rage on social media, that of who is going to be awarded Player of the Season this year in the Premier League? 

The boys walk through each of the candidates, ranking them on where they would have placed them in the rankings if they were given the keys to the castle - and helping Sam to select who he is going to write down on that little piece of paper when the voting opens this season. We discuss Arsenal's duo of Gabriel Magalhães and Declan Rice, Brentford's Igor Thiago, Manchester City's Erling Haaland and Antoine Semenyo, Manchester United talisman Bruno Fernandes and Liverpool's Dominik Szoboslai and try to find some order in the chaos. 

After the Premier League, we take a spin round the rest of Europe's Top Five, picking out our Player of the Season and a few honourable mentions for each of La Liga, the Bundesliga, Serie A and Ligue 1. 

So, is there one correct answer? Do you judge this on individual brilliance or the most important component of a team winning silverware? As ever, The Truth is somewhere in the middle...

And remember, if you’d like more from the Rank Squad, including extra podcasts every Monday and Friday (including our weekly Postbox taking a look at the whole weekend of football) and access to our brilliant Discord community, then why not join us here on Patreon?

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello Rank Squad!

It's the second Champions League Takeaway of the week, looking back at Wednesday's action from the Second Legs of the Round of 16 - where the final four teams booked their spots in the Quarter Finals - Barcelona, Liverpool, Bayern Munich & Atletico Madrid. We start at the refurbished Camp Nou, where Barcelona survived a first half basketball game with Newcastle United, and then absolutely flattened the Magpies in the second, playing some scintillating football that showcased just how breathtaking their attack can be in full flight. 

It was also an interesting night in North London, where Spurs actually won their first game under Igor Tudor, only for it not to be enough to qualify for the next round, given the collapse in the first half of the first leg. We take a look at whether this actually might be the best-case scenario for Tottenham Hotspur, with morale and momentum maintained, whilst taking Europe out of the equation in order to focus minds on the absolute necessity of survival in the Premier League. It was a strange performance from the visitors too - caught a little bit between killing the tie and defending their lead, but whilst they looked disjointed after 9 changes from the weekend, they did more than enough.  

In Part Two we discuss two individual record breaking legends. First off, we head to Anfield, where Mo Salah hit a pearler for his 50th Champions League goal; as Liverpool stepped on Galatasaray's neck, smashing the Istanbul side 4-0 in front of a completely partizan crowd to both revive the mood of the season, and give manager Arne Slot a stay of execution after serious pressure in recent weeks. Then, it's over to Munich, where Harry Kane matched Salah's achievement with a brace; as Bayern finished the job against Atalanta in what felt like a formality. Both missed penalties tonight. Both are amongst the best of a generation. Two icons of the modern era, reaching their milestones on a special night. 

It's Ranks! 

And remember, if you’d like more from the Rank Squad, including extra podcasts every Monday and Friday (including our weekly Postbox taking a look at the whole weekend of football) and access to our brilliant Discord community, then why not join us here on Patreon?

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello Rank Squad!

It's the first Champions League Takeaway of the week, looking back at Tuesday's action from the Second Legs of the Round of 16 - where our first four quarter finalists booked their spots in the last eight. We start at the Etihad, where despite a brave performance from 10-man Manchester City following Bernardo Silva's red card, Real Madrid proved too much to handle to see them off 5-1 on aggregate. Some positives for City to take ahead of the Carabao Cup final at the weekend, but perhaps more intriguing is the way Real Madrid look genuinely like they've worked out a system that minimises their weaknesses and gives them a sturdier platform on which the stars can shine. 

Reigning Champions PSG also had an excellent night at the Bridge, finishing Chelsea off with a 3-0 win on the night in West London, which equalled the Blues' worst aggregate defeat ever in the Champions League - 8-2. This was a chastening night for Chelsea and Liam Rosenior, who never really looked like even beginning a comeback, and the meek nature of the defeat might well have just turned an already angry fanbase into an apathetic one. That's a very, very bad sign. 

In Part Two we head first to the Emirates, where Arsenal put in a very impressive performance to overcome Leverkusen 2-0, with Ebere Eze and Declan Rice providing two wonderful goals, and we examine their chances of genuinely putting up a fight for a quadruple where they're now favourites in every competition; and finally to Lisbon for the game of the night, where Sporting put together the perfect Champions League comeback to end the Bodø/Glimt fairytale in an absolute avalanche of emotion and attacking football at the Jose Alvalade. 

It's Ranks! 

And remember, if you’d like more from the Rank Squad, including extra podcasts every Monday and Friday (including our weekly Postbox taking a look at the whole weekend of football) and access to our brilliant Discord community, then why not join us here on Patreon?

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It's time for The Truth!

Sam and Dougie are back in the studio for more of a positive episode - looking at some of the players who have made a major step forward in their individual careers over the course of the season. 

We walk through six players - three each for the two boys - who have really moved onwards from 2024/25 to 2025/26, stepping upwards to either make huge individual contributions for their own teams, or taking a huge step up last summer and dealing with it incredibly well. 

 So, who are the gold dust XP winners. Who has evolved over the course of this season? And how do you even measure these things? As ever, The Truth is somewhere in the middle...

And remember, if you’d like more from the Rank Squad, including extra podcasts every Monday and Friday (including our weekly Postbox taking a look at the whole weekend of football) and access to our brilliant Discord community, then why not join us here on Patreon?

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.