Just read that Phil Jupitus (is he supposed to be famous?) will be doing the Guardian podcast. Used to like listening to Gabriele Marcotti and Guilleme Balague last year so not sure about whether to bother listening to it. Anyone heard it?

Talking of Balague, he's set up his own website where' he's putting himself up as some sort of transfer market know-it all, particularly in clubs where there's a Spanish connection (Liverpool & Spurs) or transfers coming from Spain. He'll say something but make sure to put in enough get-out clauses to ensure that no one can ever say he got it wrong.

In other words, he's become extremely irritating.

Phil Jupitus is a stand-up comedian and TV presenter here in the UK.

I had no idea he was into football. He's a dedicated West Ham fan, apparently. I've never once heard him mention this fact on television. Mind you, his main gig is a music quiz.

you mean the times podcast - that's the one marcotti & balague have been doing.

balague plainly has bigger fish to fry. he stunned a group of journalists in the mixed zone after spain-italy by whistling over fernando torres, who was walking past having refused to speak to everyone else, and getting him to sign two spain shirts. the next day the shirts were up for auction on his website - i assume for some charity.

Garcia is the pod superstar here.

Balague and Marcotti were ace on Monday nights on Talksport with master wind up merchant Adrian Durham.

They would also have Xavier Roughvoir and some other bloke in sometimes.
They were not as clued up on their transfers as they would like us believe or Phillipe Mexes and Kevin Hoffland would have signed for man u years ago, Mark Van Bommel would have replaced Roy keane\Emanuel Petit, And Rafael Van Der Vaat and Wesley Schnider would have been at Anfield many seasons ago.

They did call the Torres Transfer to liverpool when everyone else was expecting him to sign for man u at the end of the 2005-2006 season.
Baqlague is quite clearly Rafa Benitez's unofficial spokesman and publicist (he has been hyping him since about 2002)so knows everything that is going on at liverpool.

Ah yes, Kevin Hofland, the new Jaap Stam.

Ended up spending his peak years at VfL Wolfsburg.

Don't knock it, they've just signed the entire 2006 World Cup winning team.

Is this the same Jupitus who said he was bored with football, and became a Red Sox fan.

In this podcast he does mention that he has a season ticket at Upton Park though.

Marcotti joins on the phone from Connecticut, but will be back in the studio next week. No sign of Balague.

Phil Jupitus has written articles about football in the Graun a few times before (though this wouldn't necessarily mark him out as a "fan" of the game - and neither would the West Ham season ticket, ho ho, etc), so I'm not particularly surprised to see him doing this. I'm not big on podcasts, though.

I also forgot about Julien Escude who was going to join Arsenal to replace Tony Adams. He signed for Ajax instead.
Then there was also Daniel Van Buyton who will be joining from God knows where to partner Rio at the back.
He was seen a couple of seasons later on load at KK's man City.

They were not as clued up on their transfers as they would like us believe or Phillipe Mexes and Kevin Hoffland would have signed for man u years ago, Mark Van Bommel would have replaced Roy keane......I also forgot about Julien Escude who was going to join Arsenal to replace Tony Adams.

To be fair to them, Man utd tried very hard to sign all of those players. Mexes opted for Roma for some inexplicable reason though, hofland and escude got quite badly injured, and van bommel was a barcelona fan from childhood

Hmmmmm.

Escude stayed at Rennes for another season despite it being a certainty he would be signing for Arsenal or Man U and then promptly signed for Ajax. I was very surprised to see him at the amsterdam tournament in 2003 in an Ajax shirt.
Van Bommel signed for Barcelona in 2005, 4 seasons after man U had been trailing him since before he scored against England at WHL in 2001 which was a few weeks before the greatest midfield performance ever seen on gods earth (i am sure you know the game).

Escude stayed at rennes because he did his knee or his ankle, and nothing came of it. I would also sincerely doubt that man utd were that into van bommel in 2001 particularly after what happened to him at lansdowne road a couple of weeks later. He was a kind of jamine redknapp type player back then. They definitely were interested in him when he metamorphosed into an entirely different kind of player and lead PSV to a CL semi final though.

Escude has actually been very solid for Sevilla (as Lodzu will attest), and Mexes has been terrific for Roma (except when playing English competition).

Both of them should have been in Domenech's squad for Euro 2008 and Mexes should have started (he would be starting for Italy if he was Italian).