Left Field

Ballon D'Awful, Newcastle's mountain, Ralf's United, cricket's coin toss & enemies

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Episode notes

Robert Lewandowski had to settle for a sympathy award at the Ballon d'Or ceremony as Lionel Messi pipped him to the big one on a night when Jorginho took bronze as the best player in the world. We chew over the criteria behind a controversial list that had Mo Salah down in seventh.

Back in England, Newcastle United underlined their credentials for the drop with another limp performance, this time against Arsenal. Can they find salvation in the January transfer window or will players be put off the prospect of a spell in the Championship?

Things are suddenly looking a little rosier at Manchester United. The Red Devils stunned everyone by making the savvy appointment of Ralf Rangnick as interim coach. It looks great on paper but we're still scratching our heads trying to figure out how his consultant role plays out when another coach takes on the full-time position.

Elsewhere in football, Sp*rs lost to the lowest-ranked team in the Europa Conference League before snow forced the cancellation of their clash with Burnley. For the US-based Lilywhite who'd travelled 31 hours to be at Turf Moor that came as a bit of a shock.

We end part one with a trip to Dublin where Cathal took in the FAI Cup final and then head to Portugal where Primera Division side Belenenses took on Benfica with just nine men in their starting lineup.

After the break, it sounds like Novak Djokovic might not take part in the Oz Open because he's not vaccinated against Covid. We wonder if that's a decision he'll come to regret. We then turn our attention to cricket's coin toss conundrum and golf's big grudge match between Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka.

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