Summary: In a week where domestic fixtures, cup competitions and European football all came back into view, perhaps the biggest stories in the sport center on what has emerged at two of the largest clubs in the world as Manchester United continues to run into failure in key matches and Real Madrid barely escapes disaster at the Bernabeu against Schalke. First up, Phil Brown and Anto join up once again to take a look at what has continued to evade any sense of real progress at Manchester United beyond hanging on to a top four challenge while never truly projecting an air of certainty that year one has set the stage for bold moves forward. In the FA Cup against Arsenal, the Red Devils were beaten by a side more comfortable in possession, much smarter on the ball while one of its former strikers Danny Welbeck seized upon a recurring problem at Old Trafford as key mistakes continue to haunt them at a key part of the season. We also take a look at the controversy and diving incidents that culminated with the Angel Di Maria red card and what the fallout begins to tell us about where the club is two years past the Sir Alex Ferguson retirement and an important transition that continues to stall and not claim an identity going forward. We also take a look at the issues surrounding Carlo Ancelotti at Real Madrid as a team sheet with so many big names in football continue to slide at precisely the wrong time with El Clasico waiting in the path ahead and how some of the questionable summer decisions in concert with the long absence of Luka Modric seemed to have unearthed deepening fissures and cracks less than a season removed from claiming La Decima. We explore what this could mean for the futures of Gareth Bale and Carlo Ancelotti himself. In the second segment, Paddy Higgs of Football Collective joins Anto to talk more about its emergence in this first year of extensive coverage, what the future looks like for the site and how BTP and Football Collective will now team together to deliver even more targeted coverage of the biggest clubs and the most important stories in the sport. Stay tuned in the weeks and months ahead as key writers and voices will emerge across media channels to bring our listeners even more top notch content.
