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Perhaps bitter and against insincere talk around football team (10)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

intoxicant

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'perhaps bitter' is the definition.
(I know that bitter is a type of pale ale)

'against insincere talk around football team' is the wordplay.
'against' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'insincere talk' becomes 'cant' (I've seen this in another clue).
'around football' becomes 'into' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'team' becomes 'XI' (a football team, from Roman numerals for ii).
'into'+'xi'='intoxi'
'cant' put after 'intoxi' is 'INTOXICANT'.

'and' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for intoxicant that I've seen before include "eg Alcoholic drink" , "Something like alcohol" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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