EPL Talk

Chelsea last stern test of the season is Sunday at Anfield, where a Liverpool side stunned by Diego Forlán's stoppage time goal will try to rebound from Europe League disappointment.  Draw or tie, and the Blues likely fall behind Manchester United before the season's last weekend.

Billy Beane may be the general manager of Major League Baseball's Oakland Athletics, but my discussion with him shows, a large part of his sporting heart lies in the footballing world.  On this edition of the EPL Talk Podcast, Beane joins me to talk about his favorite club, Tottenham Hotspur, his path to football fandom, and the analogs between baseball and football - particularly is it concerns the current trends in football performance analysis. 

Mike Forde is the Performance Director at Chelsea Football Club.  He joined me last week to talk about the the direction of performance analysis in football; specifically, in the wake of this mention in Simon Kuper and Stefan Symanski's book Soccernomics (or, How England Lose, as distributed in England), what football can take from the type of analytical approach Major League Baseball has incorporated over the last decade.  Mike talks about his views on managing data, incorporating objective analysis, and the direction football moves with as this approach is assimilated into the game.

Dominic Fifield is the London football correspondent for the Guardian.  On this edition of the EPL Talk podcast, Dominic and I talk about the five London-based clubs in the Premiership, putting their season's performance in the context of how their managers have performed.  Along the way, Dominic gives his view on Gianfranco Zola, Roy Hodgson, Harry Redknapp, Arsene Wenger, and Carlo Ancelotti.

Chelsea answers Manchester United's derailing of Tottenham with a 7-0 drubbing of Stoke while Aston Villa has left March behind by climbing to the brink of Champions League.  On this episode of the EPL Talk podcast, I am joined by Laurence McKenna and Kartik Krishnaiyer to look at the weekend that was in the Premiership, where the relegation race was settled and Chelsea stayed on track for a title ahead of next week's clash at Anfield. 

In the fifth and final part of the interview series, EPL Talk's Laurence McKenna discusses with Patrick Barclay UEFA's Finance Fair Play policy, how that changes the English league and the European structure of leagues.

Founded in 2006, the EPL Talk Podcast is the only Premier League interview podcast on the Internet. During each daily episode, we bring you intelligent interviews with some of the biggest names in football such as Mikel John Obi, Steve McClaren, Toby Charles, Graham Poll, John Terry, Gabriele Marcotti, Martin Tyler and many others. 

Can Spurs finish their run against the table's top three with a win at Old Trafford?  And will rival Arsenal do Tottenham a favor against City on Saturday?  To discuss these key match-ups as well as Thursday's Europa League results, I was joined by the review team - Laurence McKenna and Kartik Krishnaiyer - to play new, preview roles on this Friday podcast.

In part four of the interview series with Patrick Barclay, the acclaimed author and journalist talks about living in the shadow of Sir Alex Ferguson, his upcoming biography of Ferguson which is due out later this summer, and getting inside the mind of The Special One, Jose Mourinho. Interviewed by Laurence McKenna in the privacy of Barclay's home, the five part interview series is available at EPLTalk.com

As much of the coverage surrounding football has increasingly focused on finance, the Deloitte's Football Money League has garnered more attention.  On today's edition of the EPL Talk podcast, I welcome Alan Switzer from Deloitte's to the show to talk about how the table, what goes into creating it, and the trends that he's noticed in doing the research.

http://www.epltalk.com In the third part of the interview series, Patrick Barclay discusses the World Cup, how England will do, picks the 23 man England squad, discusses the importance of having Wayne Rooney in the squad and much. Interviewed by Laurence McKenna.