Left Field

European Crunch Time, Sorry Sarri, Redundancies, Ronnie O'Sullivan & Rule Changes

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Episode notes

With domestic football done and dusted all attention has turned to the Europa League and Champions League being hosted in Lisbon and Cologne/Dusseldorf respectively. The knockout stages of each have been reduced to single-leg affairs and there are plenty of fascinating narratives in play. Will Manchester United's old boys come back to haunt them? Will grizzled old-timers beat exciting outsiders? Could Pep lead City to the big one just weeks after their European ban was overturned? We pick our favourites in each competition.

Maurizio Sarri paid the price for Juventus' exit to Lyon. Have the Old Lady found a better fit for their brand in Andrea Pirlo? He's been promoted to head coach just 10 days after taking over duties with the club's under-23s. We also chat over Fulham's chances of staying up, the prevalence of out-of-favour, mega-money stars and Arsenal's regrettable decision to make 55 members of staff redundant despite their players taking pay cuts.

After the break, we talk trophy drops, which seem to be all the rage. Last week Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang made a mess of his FA Cup lift, this week golfer Collin Morikawa fumbled the lid off the PGA Championship trophy. Will somebody please think of the athletes when designing these things? Snooker's next generation have been given a rocket by Ronnie O'Sullivan for being a bit rubbish. His comments have got tongues wagging, including ours, but are they detrimental to the image of his sport?

To end the show, we discuss the rules we'd most like to change in sport. Thanks to everyone who sent in their suggestions via Twitter. Enjoy the show!

Every week on Left Field, Wogan and Allen dissect the latest in Football and Not Football. Subscribe to make sure you don't miss out, because that would be a real shame, wouldn't it?

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Wogan: twitter.com/CathalWogan