This is actually a really smart way of thinking about the differences between European and American stadiums, and about how Europeans and Americans watch live sport. It's often reduced to one being better than the other, but it's much more about the nature of the experience.

Today’s Libero is on the real stars of the modern Premier League: the pundits. How did Neville and Carragher change what we expect from TV analysis? And when did we decide pundits shouldn’t be neutral? @RorySmith @tariqpanja @JackPittBrooke pod.fo/e/614255

Today's Libero, on the return of the Champions League, a competition that could really do with Barcelona being good again @MiguelDelaney @tariqpanja @podcast_libero pod.fo/e/5e766c

Alonso is already working wonders at chaotic Chelsea BlueCo were first Premier League owners to realise that high player churn is key to navigating rules, but that makes manager’s job incredibly difficult ✍️ @RorySmith bit.ly/4qZwtrx

Question with Liverpool has never been why they don’t have a plan. It’s always been whether the plan they do have - and have basically stuck to for a decade - can still work given how much the demands of the Premier League have changed. observer.co.uk/news/sport/ar…

𝐑𝐨𝐫𝐲'𝐬 𝐞𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐬𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐬𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 👀 An excerpt from @RorySmith's Correspondent (free to read) ⬇️ There is an old convention in magazine publishing that you never compile a list of the best 10 albums of all time, or the 20 most effective ways to meet your soulmate, or the 100 must-have shackets for the fall season. The rounded number gives the impression that the list has been in some way curtailed. Far better, instead, to do the top 23 albums, or the 37 most effective ways to find love, or the 102 must-have shackets. The fact the number appears to be entirely random serves to fool the audience both into thinking that the list is absolutely comprehensive and that there is ever any reason to buy a shacket. So in that spirit, and because we should, in the interests of balance, point out that not everyone in the Premier League has spent the last two months hosing money around to no obvious purpose, I wanted to pick out EIGHT of this summer’s transfers that strike me — an entirely unqualified observer — as quite smart. Mamadou Sangaré is the obvious one, the one that everyone agrees was the deal of the summer, yet further proof of Brentford’s genius. But there are a couple of others that might, given a few weeks, come to seem just as inspired: Ipswich bringing in Exequiel Palacios imbues the team with genuine class; Alvaro Rodríguez, now of Bournemouth, is a player that has attracted rave reviews for a couple of years. Of the obvious ones, it’s hard to argue that Arsenal got good value (in this market) in Bruno Guimarães; Manchester City probably did, too, in acquiring the cheapest of the club’s new midfielders, Ayyoub Bouaddi. He looks so assured at 18; by the time he’s 21, there’s a pretty good chance he’ll be the best midfielder in the league. That leaves three more. James Trafford’s arrival at Leeds is an immediate and considerable upgrade, which is really what transfers should be about; Aston Villa have, I think, landed one of the brightest prospects in Europe in Johan Manzambi. And a personal one: Quinten Timber, twin brother of Jurrien, joined Crystal Palace on deadline day. He’s a wonderful player to watch, smooth and elegant, but crucially: he was still sharing a bedroom with his brother when he was playing for Feyenoord and Jurrien was at Ajax, the Dutch equivalent of Richarlison and Gabriel Magalhães rooming together. I want to know what the Timber family’s living arrangements in London will be immediately. Read MORE in The Correspondent. SUBSCRIBE 📫: mibcourage.co/4lo2B52

The @podcast_libero season preview is here, and we manage to get a whole hour out of the question "can anyone stop arsenal" when we all know that the answer is no @JamesHorncastle @MiguelDelaney and me pod.fo/e/562e0d

The World Cup final: a timely reminder, after FIFA blurred the line between sport and entertainment, that football does not owe you a fun time. observer.co.uk/news/sport/ar…

Today’s Libero is a bit different: we tried to update it through the day to track how we experienced the actual biggest game in the world. Me, @tariqpanja, @JamesHorncastle. I mean it’s not The Daily but it was fun. pod.fo/e/44fb56

The Justin Bieber interlude was beyond bizarre: quite a haunting song for...a World Cup final, and then he just sort of walked off on his own, half the length of the pitch, as though they'd completely forgotten about him. If FIFA want this stuff, at least do it well.

There will be a lot of anger about this but to be honest I don't mind it for the players. I mean they have medals but fine, whatever, doesn't do any harm. But what's the point if you can just...buy one?

Not quite sure these pictures prove the point but air quality in New York is abysmal. Smoke blowing in from the wildfires in Canada. Not sure you’d want to play a World Cup final in it. Or even watch Justin Bieber perform.

You can look at Argentina through strategy and tactics, fitness and conditioning, science and reason. But ultimately none of that really matters, because when it comes down to it what they do and what they have is a kind of magic. observer.co.uk/news/sport/ar…

All very peaceful in Atlanta last night and this morning. The real test will be in the stadium, I think, and that is because FIFA’s ticket strategy assumed football was entertainment, rather than sport. observer.co.uk/news/sport/ar…

Think the story of why Argentina sing about the Falklands/Malvinas so much is worth thinking about a bit more deeply than just feigning outrage about it. So I asked some people. observer.co.uk/news/sport/ar…