New Season: Last-minute deals

Introduction  

Jack: Hello my name’s Jack and welcome to our weekly round-up section called ‘This Week’ on Premier Skills English.

Rich: Hi there. I’m Rich. We’ve got lots of interesting words and phrases to help you talk about football in English.

Jack: We want you to use and practise these phrases by interacting with Premier League fans from around the world in our comments section.

Rich: If you listen to us on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, you can leave your comments in the review section. We do read all the reviews and would love to hear from you.

Jack: You can find all our latest content on the Premier Skills English homepage or the Premier Skills-British Council Facebook page. 

Rich: Let’s start with our headlines! 

Headlines

Jack: City win Community Shield.

Rich: Manchester City beat Liverpool on penalties after an enthralling one all draw in the Community Shield to raise the curtain on another Premier League season. There were chances galore in a match either side could have won in normal time. Raheem Sterling put City ahead with his first goal against his former club but Joel Matip headed in the equaliser for the Reds. Claudio Bravo saved from Georginio Wijnaldum and Gabriel Jesus scored the winning spot-kick for City.

Jack: Maguire set to become most expensive defender of all time.

Rich: Manchester United are set to unveil Leicester City’s Harry Maguire as their new central defender. Subject to passing a medical Maguire will become a United player this week for a transfer rumoured to be around £80 million. This will smash the previous world record for a defender which was Virgil van Dijk when he moved from Southampton to Liverpool last year.

Jack: Premier League transfer window set to close.

Rich: There will be a few last-minute deals being made in the Premier League this week with the transfer window closing on Thursday at five in the afternoon. Some of the most recent moves include Moise Kean to Everton from Juventus and Marvelous Nakamba from Club Brugges to Aston Villa.

Jack: Brilliant, fantastic, marvellous - a headline writer’s dream! I hope Aston Villa’s new winger score a lot of goals.

Vocabulary alert!

Rich: In our vocabulary alert, we look at some football English that we used in the headlines.

Jack: Our six words and phrases this week are: enthralling, chances galore, set to unveil, a medical, last-minute deals and a move.

Rich: Let’s start with the word enthralling as it’s a word that is often used to describe football matches that are exciting and good to watch.

Jack: Well, you’ve basically described the word already there, Rich. Enthralling is something that attracts all of your attention because it’s so good.

Rich: The pronunciation is a bit tricky. Listen to the word again: enthralling … enthralling.

Jack: The next phrase is chances galore. A chance is an opportunity to score and galore is an adjective we use to say there were lots of something.

Rich: In the headlines, we said that there were chances galore in the City-Liverpool game so that means there were lots of opportunities to score.

Jack: It’s not a phrase we hear a lot though; the next phrase is more common when a club is about to announce a new signing. The phrase is set to unveil. We said that Manchester United are set to unveil Harry Maguire as their new defender.

Rich: In this context set means about to do something or do something in the near future. And unveil means to show to the public for the first time. Set to unveil is a phrase we see a lot in newspapers when they say that clubs are about to tell the public about a new transfer.

Jack: The next word is a medical. A medical is something a player needs to do before he or she signs for a new club to show that they are fit and healthy.

Rich: That’s an easy one. The next phrase is a last-minute deal. In the summer many people look to buy holidays at the last minute. Well, football clubs look to buy players just before the transfer window closes. These are called last-minute deals.

Jack: OK, and our last word is a move. In football, a move is a synonym of a transfer. There will be lots of moves in the Premier League this week.

Rich: Right, so there are our six words and phrases. Listen to this part of the podcast again if you are not sure how to use them.

Jack: The words and phrases are: enthralling, chances galore, set to unveil, a medical, last-minute deals and a move.

Football Awards

Rich: Right, every week, we give out three Matchweek awards. 

Jack: The awards are Player of the Week, Team of the Week and Goal of the Week.

Rich: In the comments section, you need to tell us if you agree with our choices.
 
Jack: Let’s start with Player of the Week. This week we’re concentrating on the only match we’ve watched this week and that’s the Community Shield between Liverpool and Manchester City.

Rich: Well, Rodri had a great debut for City and I think he looks like a good buy from Atletico Madrid. 

Jack: What about Kyle Walker’s amazing last-minute goalline clearance. He should win it just for that!

Rich: OK, our Player of the Week is Kyle Walker. Team of the Week - well both Liverpool and City played well. I think City shaded the first half but Liverpool were better in the second.

Jack: But our Team of the Week is Manchester City as they held their nerve in the penalty shootout.

Rich: And Goal of the Week?

Jack: We’re going to give it to Raheem Sterling because he finally scored against his former club at the 11th attempt!

Matchweek Prediction 

Jack: It’s time for your predictions Rich and we want a couple of predictions from you. First of all, last week you predicted the four teams that you think will finish at the top this season: the two Manchester clubs, Tottenham and Liverpool. Well, now we want to know who will win it!

Rich: OK, in reverse order: fourth: Manchester United, third: Tottenham, second: Manchester City and first: Liverpool are finally going to do it.

Jack: You heard it hear first. Right, the new season kicks off on Friday and for every week of the Premier League season Rich will talk about one match and make his prediction. It’s your job to tell us if you agree with him or not in the comments section on the Premier Skills English website.

Rich: There’s a huge match on the opening weekend of the season: Manchester United v Chelsea at Old Trafford. The result of this match could tell us a lot already about the direction these teams will go in this season. Ole Gunnar Solsjkaer and Manchester United have had a good pre-season and the game will be the first competitive match for Chelsea’s new manager - the Chelsea legend Frank Lampard. It’s a really tough match to call but I’m going for a home win. Final score: Manchester United 2-1 Chelsea.

Jack: Only a few days to the start of the season now. I can’t wait!

Rich: Right, that’s all we have time for this week. If you listen to us on Apple Podcasts, don’t forget to leave us a review. We’d love to hear from you.

Jack: Bye for now and enjoy your football.