Episode 142 - Ranking the 10 Best Midfielders in World Football + Where will Antoine Semenyo land?
On this episode, Patrick and Hayden rank the 10 best midfielders in football for the 2025/26 season. They get into why Pedri is the clear number 1, the difficulties in ranking Caicedo, Declan Rice, and Vitinha. Next comes Dominik Szoboszlai and Fede Valverde, whose versatility makes them super valuable. Slots 7-10 differ for the guys, with Tchouaméni, Joao Neves, Bruno Grimaraes, Elliott Anderson, and Gravenberch all getting mentioned.
Then comes Antoine Semenyo, who is rumoured to be available for £65m in January. Where are his landing spots, why have his numbers declined this season, and could a loan to Barcelona be in the cards? Enjoy!
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00:00 - Intro
01:49 - Establishing rules for the rankings
03:16 - Defining 6’s vs 8’s vs 10’s
04:46 - A Clear #1 - Pedri
05:22 - Injuries are his only downside
06:59 - La Masia’s magic
09:30 - The gold standard
10:16 - Declan Rice vs Caicedo
11:50 - Hayden was WRONG about Rice
12:59 - Caicedo over Rice?
14:27 - Rice’s progressive actions + Caicedo is hard to judge
16:58 - Both are super durable
18:28 - Vitinha second for Hayden?
21:50 - Vitinha runs the game like a manager would want
23:33 - Dominik Szoboszlai, but is he a midfielder?
26:07 - Comparison to Fede Valverde’s versatility
28:26 - Valverde as a leader
29:37 - 11 of 1 player as the best team in the world?
30:00 - Hayden’s remaining 7-10 (Tchouaméni, Joao Neves, Bruno Grimaraes)
32:10 - Who is 10th?
32:33 - Patrick’s 7-10 (Tchouaméni, Neves, Gravenberch, Eliott Anderson?)
36:20 - Contenders for the final spot
38:33 - Antoine Semenyo to leave Bournemouth this January?
40:04 - What teams does he make sense for?
41:00 - The price tag makes this difficult + numbers dropping this season?
43:26 - A loan move to Barcelona?
45:20 - Great fit on the current Bournemouth team
46:55 - Less minutes on his legs than his age would suggest
48:33 - Bournemouth’s talent exodus explaining the dropoff?
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