"They're dead!": Philippe Auclair's ten-minute Man City verdict on Football Weekly
The French journalist's monologue, cut from Thursday's episode, drew a comment section that moved even faster than its views, much of it about his complete lack of a filter.
Guardian FootballStory of Why this story? The video opened at a pace of 76,271 views a day, 27 times a normal first day on this channel (2,872).
"They're dead!" - Man City slammed in epic rant | Football Weekly
Philippe Auclair was given the floor on Thursday's Football Weekly and kept it for about ten minutes. Guardian Football cut the monologue out of the episode, named it after his blunt verdict on Manchester City, and the clip passed 70,000 views inside its first day. A regular video on the channel usually ends that first day in the low thousands.
The subject is the week's biggest football story. A few days earlier the same show asked "Is this the end of Manchester CIty?" after the Premier League found the club guilty on all but one count in the case fans have long known as the 115 charges. That episode found a good audience too. But it took Auclair, who in the description's words puts City "bang to rights," to send a Football Weekly clip this far. Max Rushden hosts, with Barry Glendenning and Ali Maxwell alongside him.
Auclair is a familiar voice to the podcast's listeners: a French football writer long based in England and the author of a biography of Eric Cantona. Some commenters admit they had never heard of him before. Many more praise him for having no filter at all, and a running joke credits him with teaching the English new words in their own language. People keep returning to an aside about the Gallagher brothers and to a moment that has them joking about an eighteen-course meal.
The replies came in about seventeen times faster than on a usual first day, and not all of them are jokes. Many viewers ask whether the club's titles after 2018 should be treated any differently, and when anyone will look at the years since.
The rest of the channel's day was quieter. Sid Lowe's interview with Lamine Yamal about the Ballon d'Or and an explainer on the race to lead Fifa went up at almost the same time. Even the Fifa video opens by noting that the City case has taken over the sports headlines.
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What viewers say
This French guy is awesome, zero filter 😂
@kalemboyle7930See it on YouTubeThe french guy teaching new english words to the English. love it :)
@arunachatterjee1247See it on YouTubePhilippe Auclair is awesome.
@iancognito8047See it on YouTube
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- Channel
- Guardian Football
- Subscribers
- 306,000
- Channel views, last 7 days
- 416,890
- Channel views, pace per day
- 101,333 (on a normal day: 59,226)
- Video published
- October 2, 2026
- Video views so far
- 73,705 (less than a day online)
- Video views, pace per day
- 76,271
The numbers
Here is how far Auclair's clip ran ahead of a normal first day on Guardian Football, and how the channel's week looks around it.
💡 Test your knowledge
Before he became a Manchester United icon, Eric Cantona won the last First Division title before the Premier League began with which club?
Cantona joined Leeds in early 1992 and helped them win the 1991-92 First Division, the final season before the Premier League began.
