Latest / Let's Kick It Off! / Ep 43: Last-Minute Limbs in West London

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Ep 43: Last-Minute Limbs in West London · Let's Kick It Off!

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  Store. The change you'd like, it's a
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  deal, yeah, If Chelsea win, you have to come on and I'll just
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  put gas at the time. So I was like, yeah, whatever.
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  I think probably thinking now we hate to.
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  Stop it anyway. Yeah, yeah.
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  And then I was like, had a few beers when I put the handshake
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  emoji on your. Message a screenshot, a
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  screenshot, a screenshot of that, just in case you took.
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  I couldn't. Get out of it.
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  And I woke up the next day like. A fair play there.
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  I still thought you might cash out today, but you turned up so
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  I. Like it's get the first one out
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  of the way and. What was the meeting saying,
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  James? Yeah, so that Bratton meeting,
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  I'm actually coach second now, so I'll sit up the front and
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  take the meeting every other Monday.
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  Yeah, and I'll organise people to come in and share that week.
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  How long has it been now you've? Been so.
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  Coming up to a year, isn't it? November the 7th, yeah.
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  November 7th. Wow, gone.
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  Quick mate, last year when I looked back at photos and text
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  messages, like I was hanging on for my life, not even being
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  dramatic, like hanging on, like really, really hanging on like
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  bad. Yeah, so it's quite.
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  I know sometimes it takes the wind at me a bit after like,
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  yeah, just realise where I'm at now and then just a reminder as
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  to like if I stop doing what I'm told to do, I can easily be back
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  there and worse. So keeps.
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  You on that straight and narrow. Play 100%.
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  Just trying to help as many people as I can.
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  That's what I'm here to do now. Let's kick it off.
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  I'm Steve and I'm joined by James the Gooner who's on last
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  season and we've got Harry the Chelsea fan who is at Stamford
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  Bridge on Saturday to watch Chelsea beat Liverpool 21.
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  I think you had most of the Premier League behind you.
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  I was fucking going mad when you scored that last minute winner.
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  So I. Bet the first time James has
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  celebrated a goal like that for Chelsea.
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  In it, that's something you've been at the bridge in a few
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  years, isn't? It already so we're going easy
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  on each other you. Told me you were going to be
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  nice. Yeah, so before we get into the
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  game, just let's just go straight to that last minute
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  winner. I think it's like why?
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  We all love football. That feeling just.
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  Tell us about it. If you could bottle that up and
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  sell it, then yeah, I'd be doing this pod from my yacht in the
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  Caribbean because it was unbelievable.
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  I've got busted shins from the seat in front of me, like
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  bruised back of my calves from the seat behind me kissing
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  random bald head Barnes just grabbing me, shaking me.
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  It was pretty euphoric and it just meant a lot as well that it
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  was Madoeke upgrade Who? No, but he he just seems like a
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  really nice kid. I see he's scoring the winner
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  against Liverpool on this Saturday and then I see a video
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  of him of his family on Sunday morning dancing in church.
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  Like he's always got this massive smile on his face and it
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  just looks like he's so grateful and happy to be playing in the
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  Premier League and have this opportunity.
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  So for him to get the goal, I think hopefully it can be like a
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  springboard for him to do great things because there's been a
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  lot of expectation on his head, so.
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  Yeah. And obviously me and Nick a
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  massive car, Taylor fanboys to to share that, share that moment
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  to see him score the bang and then that's about to get the
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  winner. It was like you couldn't really
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  write a better script. Yeah, it was perfect.
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  Which which end were you at Stamford Bridge We're.
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  At Mafiard and Lois, so we saw the winner.
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  So you saw you at the winner end?
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  Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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  And then a few, few of the boys went with Jake and that they
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  were in the shed. So they saw the guy sado goal
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  because we were like kind of behind the guy sado goal.
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  You just see it at the back of the net.
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  Pandemonium, pandemonium. And then yeah, literally right
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  there for the for the winners. Yeah, it was perfect.
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  And and the fact they equalised probably may obviously makes it
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  better because you get that last minute.
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  If we'd like hung on to the to the one nil still would have
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  been great and amazing, but just nothing hits like that 95.
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  Minutes with it and even before that you had like Enzo hit the
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  post race. You thought it's like.
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  Yeah, well, we were actually saying like as soon as that
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  happened, there's like everyone around like in unison was like,
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  that was the chance. That was the chance.
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  Like that's just like such a cliche, but you just feel like
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  you're going to get one because we were on the front foot like,
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  yeah, Maresco, rightly so in recent weeks has had criticism
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  for the changes he's made in game with like the red cards and
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  stuff. And I think especially against
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  United, call him a bit off guard.
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  He's taking off Neto, who was like arguably the one player
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  you'd want on a pitch when you go down to 10 men because he's
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  got legs. He can run in in behind and
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  stuff. And I think he'd he came out and
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  said that in the press, like I made mistakes.
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  But in this game he he went for it was 1 all.
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  He changed our entire front front three.
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  I mean, he had to make a couple of defensive substitutions out
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  of like force basically because people went off injured.
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  But bringing on get and bringing on Gu and bringing on Esteval,
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  they both got they sorry, all three of them kind of added
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  something to the game in their own way, even if it was just
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  pressing from Gu, like not much like threat, but just depressed.
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  Getting looked a lot better than he had in recent weeks, which
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  isn't too hard to be fair, admittedly, because his cameos
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  have been rubbish, but he was a lot better.
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  And then obviously Esteval, the young kid getting the goal.
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  Yeah, we and obviously Liverpool been pulling late minute goals
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  out there, but as soon as we hit the post, I was like, they were
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  countering. Yeah.
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  And luckily they were so wasteful in the game, like Salah
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  just sort of carrying on what he's kind of been doing this
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  season, not performing to level. We've seen Gakpo like he's a
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  class player, but I thought he was so wasteful at times.
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  Lucky for us, because on another day they could easily, you know,
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  when you see that winger, like running into the box, you know,
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  just keep him out-of-the-box. Yeah, just looking for something
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  to happen. But yeah, we, I thought we
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  played well and well. Obviously after the Enzo chance,
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  we got another one and we we took it.
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  Yeah, fair play, James. I mean, silly question, but
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  obviously you were supporting Chelsea, right, For the title
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  race. Yeah.
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  So you're buzzing when that went in?
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  I was going to say games like that, obviously I was in an
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  industry where I got to go to Stanford Bridge a few times with
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  work and stuff like that with customers and like win them
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  games like that. Stanford Bridge like buzzing
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  there. Like I could see the scenes from
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  from the Tully and stuff like that.
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  Obviously watching it from home and yeah, obviously I was
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  buzzing. Like we, I think everyone in the
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  league needs Liverpool to talk points like last year and even
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  at the start of this year against Bournemouth, Like
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  Bournemouth, like in my eyes were the better side at Anfield.
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  Like considering like they're away at Anfield, it's the first
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  game of the season they'd lost their two centre backs.
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  Liverpool, like everyone's saying, oh, they're scored in
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  transition. Liverpool have a squad that won
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  the lead. They lost Trent, but they've
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  added 400. And so many, how much do they
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  spend? Is it half a billion?
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  Half a billion euros is. It losing Kirk has has done
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  Bournemouth a favour. Yeah, yeah.
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  Do you know what I mean? Liverpool aren't transitioning.
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  They've added like a complete armoury to already like a solid
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  11 and a fairly decent squad on to last year which like they
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  pretty much dog walked the lead in the end.
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  I think that's a mixture of other teams being poor and
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  whatever. But to see Chelsea do that, it
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  frustrates me even more that we didn't go and have a gun because
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  I think if we had to go at Liverpool, we could have won two
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  or three. Like honestly, I think we we're
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  good enough to go and do that. But I think you've seen the
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  change in the last couple of games.
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  I know it's been West Ham and then whatever, even the city
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  game again, bit reserved for my liking.
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  Like, look, we've only lost one game to a moment of magic.
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  So I'm I'm pretty happy. But yeah, in short question,
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  answer to the question buzzing that Liverpool lost and dropped
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  more points. Now peak teams will know they
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  can go there and win like home or away.
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  That's a long it's like everyone's turned up.
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  Yeah, last year, remember cities to have it like you'd see at the
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  end of the season when they were knocking off them wins.
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  I'll be like, these aren't even time.
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  They just turned up there to get beat or to not get beat badly,
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  and they wouldn't even give it a go.
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  Like a like a free hit and team start players or whatever.
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  Like, yeah, 100% actually. They didn't match the intensity
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  in certain periods and I thought that's what we did really well.
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  Then like the man to man press, I said they obviously forget the
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  goal because like on another day that balloons over whatever.
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  His just general play was phenomenal in terms of just
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  always there, always winning on it, on it.
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  Just am I, am I am I old fashioned in thinking like a bit
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  of graft and like. No, no, the concentration was
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  like multiple examples that I just noticed even in real time
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  with the winner. But it was a really lovely bit
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  of play. Even Chisado gets the ball like
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  a little reverse pass, like he just knows exactly who's there
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  and who's going to receive it. Most likely.
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  I think 10 out of our 11 outfield or players already
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  touched the ball comes to Coquerea, Enzo before Coquerea,
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  and he gets the ball and I think it's Curtis Jones.
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  He's outside the box, so he's not going to give away a pen and
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  he's on him right there. All he has to do is just put a
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  challenge and do whatever. And he just looks like he's so
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  scared to make a tackle and make a challenge giveaway.
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  I don't know what it is. And he just gives him that space
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  to just drop off of him and just play that little ball to cook or
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  air. Just little things where just
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  they just, maybe I'm not gonna say they didn't want it as much
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  as us because obviously every team wants to win.
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  It just didn't seem like they had the same and even when like
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  Lavier came on I thought he was brilliant and he always seems to
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  be fit when it's time to Liverpool and they will miss
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  like the rest of the season. But if he can stay fit I think
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  he'd be a game changer for us. But that's a big if, obviously.
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  Tell me about Enzo. Like what's what's this thing
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  about like Enzo? It goes over my head a bit like
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  in the chat. Is it like Enzo?
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  Fernandez, Sorry. So like, oh, is that?
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  What is that? What?
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  Because I see. I see it in the chat, I don't.
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  Know yeah, I don't know if it's like a Chelsea joke.
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  Or no, no, no I don't. Even.
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  But Enzo the player is a He's a tidy player, don't he?
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  I Yeah, So he hasn't started great this season at all.
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  He obviously James is shaking his head but if the back end of
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  last season he was brilliant for us, He's got I can't remember
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  how many goals and assists contributions last season.
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  But. It was a very good contribution
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  and he's just like, his box crashing is great.
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  I think he just sometimes doesn't look the most
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  aesthetically pleasing on the eye when he's playing football
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  because of maybe, I don't know, his build or whatever.
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  But then and then this season he's had such little rest.
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  Like after the Club World Cup, I think he had like less than two
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  weeks to then come back in. He played basically every single
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  game in the Club World Cup. He's like obviously been away
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  with Argentina and that and then he just looked a bit leggy.
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  He hasn't looked the same, but he was great on Saturday then is
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  definitely one of his best games for us this season.
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  He was on it. He's like gets people fired up.
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  He is a leader that we kind of because of this model that we've
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  got with the young players getting scattered from all over
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  the place. We we lack a little bit of
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  leadership compared to like Chelsea teams of the past.
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  And he's someone who definitely brings that.
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  And you can see he'd how much he'd like wants to win and how
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  much he cares about actually fighting for the badge.
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  So I won't say a bad word about him.
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  I know like he goes through periods, but for me he's an
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  important. And again, it's one of these
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  ones where we paid a lot of money for him.
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  Do you know what I mean? So he's always going to be
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  tarnished with that sort of brush.
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  So I don't know. I've yeah, but again, I thought
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  the whole team, to be honest, was great down to a man on
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  Saturday. Obviously Rob Sanchez had his
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  typical passing out to their striker, but we got it out of
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  the way nice and early and we just said if that's his one he
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  does the whole game, then we'll take that.
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  So. Yeah, fair play, James.
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  Are you shaking your head about Enzo?
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  You're not really round. I wasn't going to check my, I
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  was doing more of a. Yeah, maybe.
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  But look. I think he's good.
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  What Harry's point about the price tag is so valid, everyone?
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  Gets judged. How much was it?
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  Now like it's 18 years old like you 5 or.
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  Something. Was it that?
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  Much yeah, over 100 me more but like look, he's a he's a good
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  player. I'm not, I'm not taken that way,
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  like very good player, but I don't watch you guys as much as
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  you do Harry for obvious reasons.
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  But is like, can you tell me and be honest, like is Enzo going
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  that when Chelsea's playing bad, do you think he's been the best
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  player? Because you think Carseillo does
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  that? You look rubbish and Carseillo
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  you're like, he's still had a good game.
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  Whereas Enzo seems to be good when you're playing well and
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  everyone's on it. But will he grab a game on his
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  own? Into the best midfielder in the
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  league there, so it's. A difficult you weren't really.
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  With it, but that that thought's gone mainstream now, apparently.
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  But yeah, yeah, it's something for debate, I think.
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  And people were like. I'm in it.
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  Exactly. He scores a banger.
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  I think Rice got 4 manner matches in his first seven
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  games. Honestly, I promise you if he
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  didn't score that banger and we just win, say 2 one bit a
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  different goal scorer. No one's highlighting the fact
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  that he had Oh, he was amazing his complement performance.
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  It's just like that's so true, yes, but it's not about the
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  bangers. He he's he's putting in
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  performances aside from that, that banger like that every
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  single week against teams. Maybe we haven't been doing as
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  well as like say if we were in Arsenal who was like winning all
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  these games and you're getting your players are getting more
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  recognised. But he's he's putting in
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  performances like that on a regular basis, like even when we
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  play badly and it's. That's my point. 100 million
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  quick, you should be getting that.
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  Listen, I think the price tag comes into that a lot and maybe
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  he could offer more, but when, yeah, when he, maybe it's one of
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  those when he has a good game. He has a really good game in
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  Lightning and he plays his part. But maybe they need to come more
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  often. I think obviously cut because
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  Kai Sado, do you remember when you got him?
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  He was, he was lined up for Liverpool, wouldn't he?
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  And then you like hijacked the deal or something.
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  I. Still remember images of Enzo,
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  Kai, Sado and Lavia in Liverpool shirts on Twitter?
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  Look how that panned out, yeah. You know what they've they've
• 13:32
  lost a few players like that recently.
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  Even Zubin Indi, like he's ended up at us and they apparently had
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  toyed up like, yeah, there's quite a few players that
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  obviously they attract some big players.
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  Don't get me wrong. They've got ESAC this summer.
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  Like everyone would have had him in there.
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  Yeah, when they threw it away. I don't know.
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  It's interesting. As well, just think when he
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  meant that assist on Saturday. I've been hearing like what an
• 13:54
  unbelievable. Way the touch is absolutely.
• 13:56
  It's nice, but I think he would touch it down for himself if I'm
• 13:59
  all honest. Yeah, but yeah, I mean, before
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  we move on to Arsenal, just like just want to give the props for
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  that Kaiser strike is what a bang like.
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  Nice. Just and.
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  You know, I think he had so much time though.
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  The touch before, though, he just completely takes McAllister
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  out the game. The other best midfielder in the
• 14:21
  league, grabbing Birch is just chasing after him.
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  Get the front row seat to see him bang it top pins.
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  But yeah, it was lovely. Like the way he just cut across
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  it. Yeah, Muhammad Ash really
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  couldn't get there, but. What?
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  Why did they give them so much time though?
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  Like any Premier League player with that with that amount of
• 14:38
  time could do that if that makes sense.
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  Like at that level not like could score it every time and
• 14:42
  Carcida like sick could balloon it.
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  But the Liverpool players like Carcida was allowed and they
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  said on commentary allowed an extra 2 touches to line it up
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  and then just completely ping it.
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  Maybe that comes again crazy like the intensity thing, like
• 14:53
  we've seen every time they were there, we've seen beyond them,
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  whereas there was multiple times when I don't know if it was just
• 14:59
  like nice touches or in midfield.
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  We seem to bypass them very easily.
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  Maybe it's a pressing thing like with the loss of Luis Diaz, like
• 15:06
  in in other seasons, you'd be afforded less time.
• 15:09
  But it's the most confident. I've kind of seen our team man
• 15:13
  to down to a man on the ball, everyone receiving it.
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  And like I just didn't feel nervous like I do in some
• 15:19
  Chelsea games when we're like pissing about the back with the
• 15:22
  ball. Everyone kind of seemed to look
• 15:24
  comfortable and like even Gusto, who's I thought was brave and
• 15:28
  Domresco to put him in midfield. I thought when I saw the the
• 15:33
  team sheets that it could be him at right back and then Reese's
• 15:35
  in midfield. But he just done an absolute job
• 15:38
  on Macalla still was just dogging him.
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  I don't. Know that's what I was going to
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  say to you, hats off to you was because that centre back
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  pairing, I looked it and thought there's no way other result than
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  Liverpool win. Like even if you get 2 they're
• 15:48
  going to get 3. That's what I saw.
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  I literally we're walking into the ground with like left some
• 15:54
  of the others. I was with who I was sitting
• 15:55
  next to Nick and I literally said to him Storm Amy was like
• 15:58
  whipping about like all gloomy. It's just felt so ominous and
• 16:02
  that with with Mitting our first, our four first choice
• 16:06
  centre backs and and who do we start with?
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  A Chen Pong, who I thought was again, absolutely amazing for a
• 16:12
  young, I think 1819. And he the way he how calm he is
• 16:16
  on the ball. He was aggressive.
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  Paddy Shield, Mike's favourite player.
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  He. Had he had another good game?
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  Yeah. Was I saying sorry?
• 16:23
  So we'll walk into the ground. I said to I said to Nick, I just
• 16:27
  have such a bad feeling like anything today, like is a bonus,
• 16:30
  like you'll win. And I just, I honestly felt like
• 16:32
  that because of no Palmer, the the centre back issue.
• 16:36
  And just like the and in the morning we'd got to the train
• 16:39
  station because we knew the the tubes were off.
• 16:41
  So we had to go to Riverside instead of central and walk into
• 16:45
  Riverside. Trains are all cancelled because
• 16:47
  there's a tree that's fallen on the line.
• 16:49
  Well, OK, we'll order some Ubers.
• 16:51
  We Uber started driving towards Thatcher absolute gridlock
• 16:53
  traffic because of this issue. And it just felt like one of
• 16:56
  them mornings were like, it's just going to be one of them
• 16:59
  days, isn't it? Yeah.
• 17:00
  So just, I just, I'd admit I felt pessimistic.
• 17:02
  And recent results have given me every right to be as well.
• 17:07
  And yeah, so that's what kind of made it sweeter as well.
• 17:09
  Like getting, getting. That's why we love football.
• 17:11
  Like that's why we. Love, it's not like we were the
• 17:14
  favourites and we've rocked up and we've like nicked 2 one win.
• 17:17
  We like really we were the underdogs, which at Summer
• 17:20
  Bridge is hard to say, but it's Liverpool and we haven't been
• 17:23
  playing amazing on, albeit down to red cards and stuff.
• 17:26
  But yeah, it was good. It was good.
• 17:28
  Yeah, fair play. I think the whole league enjoyed
• 17:31
  that. So tell us just like in terms of
• 17:32
  your season then, how's it shaping up?
• 17:33
  But how you feeling about the season?
• 17:35
  Where do you think you can finish?
• 17:36
  Like, what's a good season for Chelsea, would you say?
• 17:39
  We're not in a title race. That was was, that was that last
• 17:42
  year. The thing is, I was legit saying
• 17:45
  that last year and meaning it. We were not in a title race and
• 17:48
  everyone was trying to force us in so that when we weren't in a
• 17:51
  title race, we bottled it. That's what happens in it.
• 17:54
  We're not having that maybe maybe like 5% I thought.
• 17:59
  But this season I'd say comfortable top four.
• 18:03
  If we can like push and break into that top three, if you want
• 18:06
  to call it that, then I think we can.
• 18:10
  But yeah, I don't want it to be like last season where we're
• 18:12
  back door in a top four and it's like stressed down like the last
• 18:15
  game of the season against not in Forest.
• 18:16
  I want it to be like, OK, five games to go, we're comfortable
• 18:20
  and then let's see where we can push on.
• 18:22
  And then next year, I know there's always our next year,
• 18:24
  next year, but with this young squad, hopefully they would have
• 18:27
  played together for an extra year.
• 18:30
  Older players who are still pretty young would have had
• 18:32
  another year's experience to that would be more bedded in
• 18:35
  Carnacho, people like Gittins. These young players will be more
• 18:38
  comfortable and we can go. And honestly I think we should
• 18:41
  be doing something serious next year.
• 18:44
  I'm not saying we will, but we should be.
• 18:45
  If we want to have any aspirations to be a great team,
• 18:48
  then next year is the time when we need to kick on, coming off
• 18:52
  the back of the Club World Cup and people obviously love to
• 18:54
  sniff at how much of a good, valid tournament it is.
• 18:57
  But beating A-Team like PhD, obviously you're going to go
• 19:00
  into the next season with a lot of confidence and everything was
• 19:04
  looking good. I was liking the recruitment and
• 19:06
  but then the loss of Levi was just like kind of a dagger to
• 19:10
  Chelsea fans because he had such a good sort of whole season
• 19:14
  really. But back end or second-half of
• 19:15
  last season he was brilliant. Club World Cup year coming up.
• 19:19
  I just thought this was going to be a really big year for him and
• 19:23
  it's not until you actually lose him and you realise because of
• 19:25
  our our system then risk of plays where we start always in a
• 19:29
  back 4. Then we go to like a back three
• 19:31
  pretty much straight away in possession and it's either kind
• 19:35
  of say Gristow will bomb on or he's even inverted Gristow or
• 19:39
  he'll bomb on down the right or Kukria will invert into like a
• 19:41
  10 and we'll play a back three. No matter what happens, it will
• 19:44
  be Levi will be that centre, centre back and it's such a like
• 19:47
  a niche role because so much of our build up comes from him.
• 19:50
  Just he's he's by far like the best passing defender we have in
• 19:54
  terms of those cut through balls into midfield and whether into
• 19:57
  endo or Palmer. Then Palmer just turns and then
• 19:59
  finds someone and we found it out a palace like Joshua
• 20:02
  Champlong. That was the first game he
• 20:04
  started. He I don't think he started once
• 20:06
  until Liverpool. After that he was great.
• 20:09
  He was battling with Mateta, but when he actually got the ball.
• 20:12
  We just didn't have that like incision path through to
• 20:15
  midfield like like Levi does. And I don't think Levi's the
• 20:18
  best defender in the world. Don't like, I'm not trying to
• 20:20
  say that he is. But you said last year?
• 20:24
  If I said that I don't know, but I.
• 20:26
  Was in Michael again. Probably trying to probably
• 20:28
  trying to wind you up James, but I think he is a lot better than
• 20:34
  not even just rivals given credit for.
• 20:36
  Chelsea fans love to slate and they Chelsea fans sometimes love
• 20:39
  to slate their like their youth Academy products when maybe it's
• 20:42
  just because they love shiny new toys.
• 20:44
  And maybe I can get sucked to that sucked into that at times
• 20:47
  as well. But I think Levi's brilliant and
• 20:50
  I think he he's a massive mess. And maybe that's a question on
• 20:52
  the sporting directors because we still had time after that to
• 20:56
  go out into the market and sign another centre back.
• 20:59
  At the end of the day, Levi is going to come back.
• 21:01
  Hopefully he returns to the to the level he was playing at.
• 21:04
  And we've, and people will tell us we've got enough players.
• 21:06
  So we're kind of damned if we do, damned if we don't.
• 21:08
  Because if we went out into the market and signed top centre
• 21:12
  back, people will be like, oh, they're signing another player,
• 21:14
  how many do you need? But then we don't.
• 21:16
  And look what happened yesterday.
• 21:17
  I mean you can't foresee obviously one's a suspension
• 21:21
  calibre, but you can't really foresee 3 of your starting
• 21:24
  centre backs getting injured like that.
• 21:27
  But yeah, I thought, I thought Josh was a real a bright point
• 21:29
  of sorry, I kept saying yesterday on Saturday and
• 21:32
  hopefully we see him start again if he's not seriously injured.
• 21:36
  I think it was just a precaution for him about the show because
• 21:38
  neither of them have played hardly any minute.
• 21:40
  So they probably just needed by like eighty, 7080 minutes to
• 21:45
  have a rest. But even Hato when he came on at
• 21:48
  Reese, obviously going back to centre back, that was a real
• 21:51
  makeshift partnership and I thought they even them two did
• 21:54
  brilliantly, albeit Liverpool weren't at their pump but.
• 21:58
  Yeah, fair players. So you think like, yeah, solid
• 22:00
  top four. And obviously the cups, unlike
• 22:02
  some teams, you're still in all the cups, so try and sneak a
• 22:05
  little cup maybe. Yeah, I mean, even in recent
• 22:09
  years when we haven't been performing in the league, we've
• 22:11
  been getting to cup finals. I mean, Liverpool have been our
• 22:13
  bogey team in cup finals as of late.
• 22:16
  But yeah, just a nice run in some cups.
• 22:18
  And to be honest, I'm not like my sentiment isn't as high as it
• 22:23
  was coming into the season for those two reasons, Like, but
• 22:28
  yeah, I'm still pretty positive. And I think we've got a good
• 22:31
  side and on our day we can go toe to toe of anyone.
• 22:34
  But it's just how many of those days we actually have and not
• 22:37
  getting complacent against teams like Brighton.
• 22:39
  I know again, red card, but it's just it's just stupid stuff like
• 22:43
  we're just in cruise control and then throw a game away.
• 22:46
  And I, and I think me and you had this conversation not long
• 22:48
  ago where it just doesn't feel like there's an easy game in the
• 22:50
  Premier League these days at all.
• 22:52
  Like it's not gone are the days where there was kind of three or
• 22:55
  four hard games and the rest of you just literally expected to
• 22:58
  win no matter what. Like Bournemouth away, now is a
• 23:00
  tough game. Like Brentford away.
• 23:02
  Yeah, exactly mate. We can't, we can't win a game
• 23:05
  unless it's a promoted team or it might.
• 23:07
  Be one of the only indie games, Yeah, and we're still ready.
• 23:10
  Though Oh, it's mad, but yeah, right.
• 23:12
  Let's let's talk Castle then, James.
• 23:14
  Fucking what? What you saying then?
• 23:17
  Are you going to do it? Your squad is looking strong,
• 23:19
  mate. You thought West Ham at home,
• 23:22
  maybe a little banana skin, new manager bounce.
• 23:24
  But you swept them away. 2 nil. You're looking good, aren't you?
• 23:27
  Yeah, I think we look comfortable even like do you
• 23:29
  know what one of them games as well, I believe that was the
• 23:33
  Bilbao way, Athletesca Bilbao way.
• 23:35
  Yeah. So we we won that two NIL like
• 23:37
  quite late on and it was like 2 people that started a lot for us
• 23:41
  last season crossed out of Martinelli came off the bench as
• 23:44
  finishers, as I'd like to say it was from NFL chat and and they
• 23:49
  did the job. And again, like Martinelli came
• 23:51
  on against City late on and as they played that lot paler over
• 23:55
  the top to him and he and he tucked it or like love to keep
• 23:57
  love donor rumour. He's like unbelievable.
• 23:59
  And I've got PTD from Donorama from last year's CL Rama, but I
• 24:03
  don't know it's one of them. But do you know what, man?
• 24:05
  I'm in the camp of like, it's very hard to get excited about
• 24:08
  Arsenal, like potentially winning the league because the
• 24:11
  last two seasons have been so painful when he got to the
• 24:13
  business name. But going off what Harry said
• 24:16
  about the signings and the squad depth and stuff, this is the
• 24:19
  first time probably in my life since we were like elite that
• 24:22
  I'm like, we've got the squad to win a league.
• 24:24
  Like we're not like every year, we always say in my Arsenal
• 24:26
  chat, but we're we're this short.
• 24:28
  We're we need. We haven't had the striker.
• 24:30
  That's been it for a few years, right?
• 24:31
  We haven't had enough centre back.
• 24:33
  We had Rob Holden literally starting in in the last 7-8
• 24:36
  games of the title run mark in Harland.
• 24:38
  And like you saw what happened to him and bless him, like he
• 24:40
  couldn't even get a start for Crystal Palace.
• 24:41
  I think he's in the Championship.
• 24:43
  And I'll, I'll back that up. Like, you know, I hate Arsenal,
• 24:46
  you know, I hate whatever. But this is the first year.
• 24:50
  Well, I've been like, I am worried because do you remember
• 24:53
  back in Unihus when Liverpool were threatening to win the
• 24:55
  league for the first time in however many years or first time
• 24:58
  to win the Premier League and we were just praying every week for
• 25:01
  like. Steven Gerrard to slip?
• 25:03
  And it came in the form of yeah, Steven Gerrard and and Dwight
• 25:06
  Gale. Yes.
• 25:09
  Just little things and that I was genuinely worried then and
• 25:12
  Arsenal been a good team for a while, don't get me wrong.
• 25:14
  But the last two seasons I haven't felt like really worried
• 25:18
  because there's been teams in the league that I think can
• 25:19
  compete. But now with their defence and
• 25:23
  how strong it is, and now with the depth and like the mould of
• 25:26
  the defender, like most of their fullbacks can comfortably play
• 25:30
  centre back. They'll be Superman stuff in the
• 25:32
  air, but they're also athletic and can defend like wide
• 25:35
  channel. Play football properly as well
• 25:36
  as the IT. Is a scary team I still think
• 25:39
  you're just below that like elite level attack in terms of
• 25:44
  like soccer obviously no one can say anything about soccer your
• 25:47
  careers is still for me he's. Still I want to talk a.
• 25:50
  Bit on forward watch because I don't know, I need to see a
• 25:53
  little bit more and then you I think you need a world class
• 25:55
  left winger because I don't I don't think Eze is going to play
• 25:57
  left wing like that. Our view on it is.
• 26:01
  That Eze can play on the left and when he has come on there,
• 26:04
  he's looked dangerous and I think he'll cause any fall back
• 26:06
  in the world problems and sort of his footwork.
• 26:08
  He's aggressive. He can slick.
• 26:10
  He does different things that you're not expecting, which like
• 26:12
  I've played fullback, that's every man's nightmare in it,
• 26:13
  someone you don't know what they're going to do.
• 26:15
  Whereas Martinelli and Tulsa, you know, Tulsa's cutting back
• 26:17
  inside and he's not quick and you know Martinelli isn't
• 26:20
  confident enough to go and take it 1 so he's probably going to
• 26:22
  cut back. So as long as you're close to
• 26:23
  him and you've got a bit of speed, you're all right.
• 26:25
  But then you just mentioned that before we played over the top to
• 26:28
  the left winger. Like that's why, that's what,
• 26:31
  that's why I think we've signed our recruitment been so precise.
• 26:34
  We'd like, yeah, we're Brian Esse because he can play left
• 26:36
  wing but he can also play in this role like, whereas in the
• 26:39
  past signed someone and it's like, well where else can they
• 26:42
  play? Whereas we've got, like you
• 26:43
  said, that back line like that mascara mate, By the way, £13
• 26:46
  million he's placed, sent about, came on an Anfield and looked
• 26:48
  like years like yeah, I think he's 23 or 22 years old.
• 26:52
  Him kapiye entirely rated. I know I can't claim to.
• 26:54
  Him. Yeah, I.
• 26:55
  Haven't seen any deal but bragging I know yeah.
• 26:57
  Chelsea fans love their transfer like news and stuff.
• 27:01
  We were like closely monitoring him as well, so.
• 27:06
  Well, it's similar to Haiti, I think, isn't it?
• 27:08
  And that's the sound of like. Kind of like a station, yeah.
• 27:11
  Yeah, which is what I'm saying. These days you need that, I
• 27:13
  think. But when you're with Harry, when
• 27:14
  you're saying like you don't think they're elite level, is
• 27:16
  that basically in comparison to Liverpool if all guns are firing
• 27:20
  with like Isaac Salah? Yeah.
• 27:23
  And I do think Holland, Holland is Holland obviously on it this
• 27:27
  year. Like he looks like a man
• 27:28
  possessed and we were saying that before the weekend and that
• 27:31
  goal against. Yeah, Brentford.
• 27:35
  Brentford just beast I don't see and maybe Cockers will, I don't
• 27:39
  know. Listen, I haven't watched him
• 27:41
  loads but I just don't see him creating a chance out of nothing
• 27:45
  for himself like Harlan can maybe.
• 27:48
  I'm wrong. He did against Leeds.
• 27:49
  He did against Leeds in fairness he picked the ball up wide and
• 27:52
  and distance from going drove it.
• 27:54
  The defence took on a couple of players and slotted.
• 27:56
  But yeah, likewise right. I can agree with you.
• 27:58
  I would like to see a couple more goals.
• 28:00
  I'm like Holland is an anomaly when he comes to league.
• 28:04
  Again in his debut, he. Got AI think?
• 28:06
  Did he get a hat? Two or two like yeah.
• 28:08
  Three and then went on to. Get the season was the his worst
• 28:11
  ever start to a Premier League season.
• 28:13
  Yeah, and he scored like. Three and he scored a ridiculous
• 28:15
  amount of goals. Yeah, no, I don't think it might
• 28:17
  not be now, but like after game like 6 or something.
• 28:21
  But then have you got more of a, have you, have you got more of a
• 28:23
  spread attack though like has? Then you don't need to rely on
• 28:25
  the number 9 as much because you got so much like quality around
• 28:28
  him, would you say? Yeah, I think so.
• 28:30
  We've got a lot of players that can create.
• 28:32
  We've got defenders that can score goals with Timber and
• 28:34
  Gabrielle already Declan Rice is popping up with the goals
• 28:36
  because he can do it all. Listen, you've.
• 28:40
  Completed three goals in seven games.
• 28:42
  If you carry on that rate that you're pretty close to the the
• 28:46
  old Chelsea. 15 goals conceded in the season, anyone will
• 28:50
  struggle to beat you at that rate.
• 28:51
  I mean, I'm not saying you're going to carry that on, but I
• 28:53
  think it's the something like you concede an average of seven
• 28:58
  shots a game, which isn't enough for teams to score consistently
• 29:02
  against you. You don't concede big chances.
• 29:06
  Teams have to be so clinical just to get a goal against you
• 29:08
  and then so you're always in the game.
• 29:10
  And then when you've got like people like Gabrielle, people
• 29:13
  like Celiba who are constant threat and sackers delivery,
• 29:16
  you're always in the game. Like like against Newcastle,
• 29:18
  you're you're in the game, you end up winning because you can
• 29:21
  stick the ball in the back of the net from a from a set piece.
• 29:23
  So you're, I think you're just going to be difficult to beat
• 29:25
  and like. You're the main thing.
• 29:27
  Yeah, I'm sorry mate. The difference.
• 29:29
  Sorry kids fresh my mind the difference with us this year
• 29:31
  compared to previous years. There's even after last year
• 29:33
  because Gabrielle Hazleys was out and then he lost form like
• 29:36
  when he first came he was great. We only really looked.
• 29:38
  I thought if Sacco don't score, who was going to score Gabrielle
• 29:42
  header or a Rice like Long Ranger.
• 29:44
  Apart from that, Odegard was well off it compared to the
• 29:46
  years combined. Martinelli was off the pace.
• 29:49
  Chelsea had popped up with a few but not now.
• 29:50
  That's the difference now just. Just.
• 29:52
  Now I could list you 6-7 players that I'd be confident that they
• 29:56
  could. Marino pops up with goals,
• 29:58
  Tulsard can still score, Martinelli's had a couple.
• 30:00
  The game stretched more. Jokar as Wolves definitely score
• 30:03
  and he's making a big difference off the ball and like he's
• 30:05
  drawing players in sakers. Mudweke hasn't scored or
• 30:08
  assisted, but he's looked dangerous when he has played.
• 30:10
  Do you know what I mean? Like there's more players than
• 30:12
  you're like if we bring that off the bench or as before, like
• 30:15
  Eddie and Kelly was coming off the bench and like Sterling last
• 30:20
  year came off the bench and like.
• 30:21
  More complete squad. Yeah, and there's just more
• 30:24
  people like with Liverpool and with City, years from by and
• 30:26
  even Chelsea, you boys, when you had William Havarts, Diego
• 30:29
  Costa, you knew Fabregas would get some matches, your defenders
• 30:32
  would come up, like you had a lot of players that were
• 30:34
  chipping my goals. We've now got that, so I think
• 30:36
  we will score. Do you think there's pressure
• 30:39
  now this year to, even if it's a Cup, to actually win something?
• 30:45
  Everyone thing. Being shit and not win anything,
• 30:47
  but being good, you know, a great team and not winning
• 30:50
  anything is like, yeah, that's in a way that's kind of worse
• 30:52
  because you've got that expectation there.
• 30:55
  So what are you willing to say on this pod tonight?
• 30:58
  Do you reckon you you're going to win something?
• 31:00
  Do you do? You have to win that last year.
• 31:02
  What happened at last the. End of the season without
• 31:04
  silverware, that's that's kind of the question.
• 31:06
  Well, it's a massive conversation piece in it because
• 31:08
  if you go out at her out, which every other fan wants and the
• 31:11
  only reason they want that and hype that is because then how
• 31:13
  he's a good cat for and he causes a lot of problems for
• 31:15
  you. Like it's true.
• 31:16
  When, apart from Liverpool, when was the last time we lost again
• 31:19
  to anyone in the Big Six, as they say?
• 31:20
  Like I think it's like I gave. It to you and at the same time
• 31:23
  he's not winning anything. If he was like winning loads of
• 31:25
  silverware then it might be a massive issue for us, but.
• 31:27
  So who do you bring in? If he's gonna, I know that's
• 31:30
  that's a tough question. If he's gonna continue to, he's
• 31:32
  clearly building something good. But at some point, you've got to
• 31:34
  sort of reap the benefit. I'll tell you what's actually
• 31:36
  quite similar, right? And James like, like if we, if
• 31:39
  we talk about England, right, like what Southgate did with
• 31:41
  England, like got us like punching, right.
• 31:44
  And then he got, he'd done that for a couple of tournaments and
• 31:46
  then you were part of that crew. It's like, oh, we need a win.
• 31:48
  We need, we need a winner now. So I guess that is the type of
• 31:51
  manager you would look to change.
• 31:53
  No, I don't think anyone who's talking sensibly can really
• 31:56
  knock what Artet has done like over a long period of time.
• 31:59
  You know, you can say you can say he's not one.
• 32:00
  Certain, I really dislike him, but yeah, yeah, clearly the way
• 32:04
  where he's taking. It's a good thing though, isn't
• 32:06
  it? If you like my manager, I'd be
• 32:07
  worried. No.
• 32:08
  I love poster Hubli. I love.
• 32:10
  For sure, for sure, for sure. But you know what I mean.
• 32:12
  You're taking them from and too. Yeah, you.
• 32:13
  Can't be no, but it'd be like a winner to Josie.
• 32:16
  But you know what I mean? Like that type of Conte, like
• 32:18
  this winning time managers, right, That's where you would
• 32:21
  go. So it's like that's the
• 32:22
  alternative. My only criticism about is I
• 32:25
  think he's just a bit too emotional.
• 32:26
  I've said it for a couple of years, I think he's too
• 32:28
  emotional. Like every game is a cup final.
• 32:30
  Like if I was a player, like I would get up to it.
• 32:32
  But that bubble bursts at a point, doesn't it?
• 32:34
  Like you know that how draining that can be.
• 32:36
  And then you's seen at the end of each season.
• 32:37
  We keep her out and we. Lose.
• 32:38
  I think it's just popular with me.
• 32:40
  It's like on social media fall like a random game or like mid
• 32:43
  like beginning of the season against a big team.
• 32:46
  They'll just be like these big montages and building it up like
• 32:49
  it's a cup final when that's Richard me to say and I'm like
• 32:52
  been buzzing all week over to win against Liverpool.
• 32:54
  But there just seems to be the extra level of drama, which
• 32:58
  sometimes maybe you just need to like tone it back and just go
• 33:01
  about your business, maybe your. Money.
• 33:02
  That's just media and money these days and social media.
• 33:05
  I'll try not to look too much into that, but I do get what
• 33:07
  you're saying and that's my only thing is I think it's too
• 33:09
  emotional. It should just be turn up, knock
• 33:11
  the three points off and go to the next one.
• 33:13
  And that's what City used to have.
• 33:14
  Then 17 game runs. They don't like hype.
• 33:16
  They just turn up and win a game of football.
• 33:18
  And go home those runs. Yeah, Liverpool did it as well,
• 33:21
  right? It's almost like, and I'm
• 33:22
  praying, praying this doesn't happen.
• 33:24
  It's almost like you'll win one thing and then it would just be
• 33:27
  like floodgates and like that pressure, that pressure will be
• 33:29
  off. And I'm on praying that doesn't
• 33:31
  happen. But I could see like a situation
• 33:33
  where you win something and then because you've that first one's
• 33:36
  out the way, it's like, yeah, it happened.
• 33:38
  With the NSA cups, didn't it? You know, it took us a while to
• 33:40
  win a trophy in general. I think it was like, was it
• 33:42
  about 17 years or something crazy like that?
• 33:44
  Might have been, yeah, yeah. Well, no, not that long story.
• 33:48
  I'm not judging that. It's it was a big time measure.
• 33:50
  Remember, it was like Arsenal needs to win the Carling Cup and
• 33:52
  we lost it to Birmingham in the final and we got the one off a
• 33:55
  cup. We've got the one.
• 33:57
  I think we've done four or five since.
• 34:00
  Yeah, like Chesney, like. Or something like yeah, it's.
• 34:02
  Fab, yeah. Oh, definitely.
• 34:03
  Martins like back flipping and that yeah, that was it.
• 34:07
  Yeah, yeah. But what I'm saying is I get
• 34:11
  what you're saying, Harry, but I think at the same time for me,
• 34:13
  the pressure's on Arteta and the whole team.
• 34:15
  But the only reason I don't think Arteta will go even if we
• 34:18
  don't win this year is like look at all these players that are re
• 34:20
  signed deals. They're not doing it Like if you
• 34:23
  don't like your manager and you don't trust them as a player,
• 34:25
  like you're not one going to sign into a club, but some.
• 34:27
  Big sign to him. Also, why would you sign a five
• 34:30
  year contract later? You thought another manager
• 34:32
  should come in and then I don't know, that's just my view on it.
• 34:35
  Yeah, I guess we're not the biggest.
• 34:36
  Payers out there mate, you're not.
• 34:39
  No. Well, have it seemed to do all
• 34:40
  right. Have us.
• 34:41
  But yeah. But like, I guess one thing
• 34:43
  you've. Big contract you've got.
• 34:44
  One thing you've got this season that I feel like I can see is
• 34:47
  like, I know you've had like Gabrielle Saliba before, but
• 34:50
  like even Declan Rice, it's like that leadership.
• 34:51
  But Harry, you talked about before like it feels like that
• 34:54
  leadership group is like. Even soccer's stepping up a bit
• 34:57
  like that's. What I mean let the.
• 34:58
  Armband on and that. So it's like, you know, you need
• 35:00
  you need everything to go well in terms of the way the team
• 35:02
  grows. But like I know what you mean
• 35:04
  like in terms of could that smaller trade because even for
• 35:07
  United, I remember like 2006 like the new crop of players
• 35:10
  like Rooney, Ronaldo, they won the Carlin Cup 1st and then they
• 35:14
  won the league like the next. Was famously Jose.
• 35:16
  That was his first cup. Wasn't it the Carlin Cup?
• 35:17
  Yeah, it's. True, it's a bit different
• 35:19
  because it's kind of all in the same season, but it just
• 35:22
  embedded. I think I've never seen Arsenal
• 35:23
  win that I've. Embedded the winner's mentality.
• 35:25
  I can't remember you winning. It.
• 35:26
  No. Yeah, yeah.
• 35:28
  Because you will probably always play the kids.
• 35:29
  Final Chelsea, well, we played the kids, Venga used to that and
• 35:32
  we lost school. Terry got kicked in the head
• 35:34
  didn't. They remember that was it
• 35:35
  Millennium Stadium. Yeah, I thought we might.
• 35:38
  Taking a few kicks in there too. So there's a lot mate, he's a
• 35:41
  good player. So where do where do you reckon
• 35:44
  the fan base is that with Arteta now?
• 35:46
  Like what would you say like this split is in terms?
• 35:48
  Of be honest, it's a tough one. It is like a split thing, but
• 35:50
  it's like I don't want to get on the manager's back and then also
• 35:53
  with decisions and again, that's right.
• 35:55
  I thought you're kind of worth backing in Philly.
• 35:58
  Yeah, we do backing, but then people are like a lot of people
• 36:00
  are not saying like if we don't win anything this year, like how
• 36:03
  long do you let that like you say, how long do?
• 36:05
  You like? That's the question.
• 36:06
  Like he brought us from the pits to up here.
• 36:08
  But then like, like I said to you about your standards, like
• 36:11
  when you said to me, like how many, like how long do you give
• 36:14
  him? But my standard is Arsenal
• 36:15
  Football Club should be competing for a trophy every
• 36:18
  season. And when we weren't, we were
• 36:19
  awful. And I had to sit through that
• 36:22
  like you're feeling it now. But he still picks up the on
• 36:24
  trophy. Yeah.
• 36:26
  Do you remember? Like it was just like when I
• 36:28
  opened my phone, mate, and it was in COVID.
• 36:30
  It was in COVID. And the only thing I had to look
• 36:32
  forward to, if you know what I mean, was watching the football.
• 36:35
  And we, I think we didn't leave. We didn't win for 17 games.
• 36:39
  We didn't win for 17 games. Shit was that was that during
• 36:42
  Covad? Yeah.
• 36:43
  Yeah, the only game we had we won in 20 games was against
• 36:45
  United. It's a bit of a blur for me if
• 36:48
  I'm honest. Yeah, yeah.
• 36:49
  Even Liverpool winning it just put put that on my mind.
• 36:52
  Doesn't count. Fair play.
• 36:54
  Well, yeah, I mean, you're looking good.
• 36:55
  I think everyone, everyone can see that, right?
• 36:58
  I'm just mixed mate, like it's hard to not get.
• 36:59
  I can see you, you're like, I feel like you're, you're like,
• 37:02
  it feels like you're the Arsenal gaffer.
• 37:04
  You're trying to like just, you know, enjoy it, keep it cool in
• 37:07
  it. Just like don't get too excited.
• 37:08
  I can, I can actually like feel that vibe coming from which I
• 37:11
  rate because that's what you need to do to win a title,
• 37:13
  right? So.
• 37:14
  My emotions can't take it. I'll relapse.
• 37:20
  Fair play. Well, I guess we better touch on
• 37:23
  United quickly then. I can see the smile on your
• 37:25
  voice faces. Look, I ain't got much to say
• 37:28
  apart from one thing. And then I'll let you boys ask
• 37:30
  me or tell me whatever you want to say about United.
• 37:32
  The only thing that pisses me off with United, well, there's a
• 37:35
  lot of things, but the one thing that pissed me off?
• 37:37
  The only thing I was going to tell you, yeah.
• 37:38
  Surely there's a list when you win.
• 37:41
  When you win, there's less things that piss you off, but
• 37:43
  there's still a couple of things.
• 37:46
  Obviously. Sorry to.
• 37:46
  Jump in. We've got a good situation here
• 37:49
  where all three of us have actually come away with three
• 37:51
  points this week. I know.
• 37:52
  Yeah. It could have been worse, yeah.
• 37:54
  Probably pretty rare actually. Obviously.
• 37:56
  Imagine being a Scouser. Obviously we had to be playing a
• 37:58
  promoting team to get our three points but.
• 38:01
  Thunder have been all right this season.
• 38:02
  I know they have been, yeah. But yeah, it's it actually kind
• 38:06
  of like links to what you were saying, James, about like one
• 38:09
  win, hold it down. Like, obviously if you beat a
• 38:10
  big team or even if it's not a big team, you win in the last
• 38:13
  minute, Fair play. Get excited.
• 38:14
  Like I was obviously taking the piss when I when I said Arsenal
• 38:17
  getting a bit excited about the Newcastle away win only because
• 38:20
  I'm jealous, right? But if you beat a West Ham, if
• 38:23
  you beat a West Ham at home and you're a big club, like you
• 38:25
  don't get too excited about it, right.
• 38:27
  And like the thing that pisses me off, and I don't know if I've
• 38:29
  just got a bit of a problem with Luke Shaw.
• 38:32
  They're basically like he put a post out the next day on
• 38:35
  Instagram. It's like, Oh yeah, great win
• 38:37
  for the boys, just like Scroll down as instead.
• 38:40
  It's like, when the fuck were you posting for like all of
• 38:43
  these defeats? And they're just like, they get
• 38:44
  so excited over one win and I don't they feel.
• 38:47
  They kind of feel like, Oh yeah. Off the hook like.
• 38:50
  And you look, you look right in ourself.
• 38:52
  You were slating us. Yeah.
• 38:53
  How we won. Like and it's like, yeah, that
• 38:55
  mentality of just like 1. Win, Steve, I want to say
• 38:58
  something as well. Yeah.
• 38:59
  You know, you said at the start where you said we've beaten the
• 39:02
  promoter team. Yeah.
• 39:03
  So Joe, Joey B, you know, Harry from.
• 39:05
  Yeah, he's. Not Joey Bargain.
• 39:09
  No, no, no, no, no, no, he's not.
• 39:11
  Yeah, he said to me like he was like, it's funny with United
• 39:14
  because everyone says you've beaten A promoter team, but if
• 39:16
  you flip it, we're beating a team that were 4th or 5th in the
• 39:19
  table and they have actually beaten some decent teams.
• 39:21
  And I was like, I'll get it. Is it the reach made?
• 39:25
  It's a reach. It's a big reach, God.
• 39:28
  And yeah, Speaking of reaches, there is a few people within the
• 39:32
  United fan base. I'd say the match going fan base
• 39:35
  they're mostly Ruben in because that's like what match game fans
• 39:38
  doing it like they get behind the team, get behind the
• 39:40
  manager. But outside of that, I reckon
• 39:42
  like majority are like Ruben out now.
• 39:44
  So like the Ruben in people. So I was telling you earlier,
• 39:47
  Harry, someone in the let's kick off community, Mike Claire, he's
• 39:51
  united found me and Harry went to uni with him in Liverpool.
• 39:53
  Less said about that the better, but he basically dropped a
• 39:57
  message in the chat today. And it's the stats, right?
• 40:00
  If you look at the underlying stats of the season, United are
• 40:03
  like most shots created like chances created.
• 40:05
  Like top four and they're like clinging on to that, but it's
• 40:08
  results business in it surely it.
• 40:10
  Is it is I don't I'm trying to like, do you know what?
• 40:13
  I don't have a dog in the fight. And it's hard because I don't
• 40:16
  watch every single one of your games.
• 40:18
  I'm not constantly thinking about it or but yeah fucking I'm
• 40:21
  glad I don't have to but. You watched the Grimsby game
• 40:24
  though, didn't you? Fucking watch that.
• 40:26
  I I think I'd be Ruben in I think I would, as much as I like
• 40:32
  to terrorise, I just think he's clearly got pedigree with it,
• 40:35
  although it being in like an inferior league.
• 40:39
  But at some point you have to look at are the players good
• 40:43
  enough? And I don't know how much input
• 40:45
  he had that had into that in terms of how involved in
• 40:48
  recruitment he is. But are they good enough in your
• 40:51
  opinion? Are the sentiment is good
• 40:52
  enough? It's is are the players good
• 40:54
  enough for his system? And and people will say I'll
• 40:56
  change system, but managers, I know they should be tactically
• 41:00
  fluid. But if he believes in that
• 41:01
  system and he can easy make it work, then I respect him for not
• 41:04
  changing the system. So yeah, that's my question to
• 41:06
  you. Do you think they are good
• 41:07
  enough? Just on the system quickly it's
• 41:09
  like 10 hard. Got battered because like 2
• 41:12
  games into his tenure United, we'd lost two games, Brian,
• 41:16
  Brian at home, Brentford away and then he flipped his system
• 41:19
  and then we got a bit of success, got in the top three,
• 41:21
  but then he got criticised for flipping his system.
• 41:24
  So Ruben came in on the basis of he's got a system and he's gonna
• 41:28
  stick to it. I.
• 41:28
  Tell you he did not get criticised for flipping his
• 41:31
  system and that's Antonio Conte. Yeah, exactly 3 nil to the
• 41:34
  Gooners. And when I had.
• 41:36
  You on in the teens and went on I.
• 41:37
  Remember that clearly. 18. Sanchez announced it. 55 at the
• 41:40
  back as well, right? You played.
• 41:42
  Well, yeah, like 3 at the back. Well, before these days, yeah.
• 41:45
  And how weird are that? You have the perfect players for
• 41:47
  that system. Like Abbott is one of the best
• 41:49
  ball plans in the backs at the time.
• 41:51
  Gary Kay Well. You say you say that, but then
• 41:53
  Victor Moses was playing right wing back and he was a like a
• 41:56
  revelation. But no one would have said, oh,
• 41:58
  I know we should do. Yeah, flipped.
• 41:59
  Hindsight in it hindsight. But.
• 42:02
  He has the London like it's a built left, left wing back.
• 42:06
  I mean, we had, we had, we had great players.
• 42:08
  No, but that's the difference. Contest is that type of manager
• 42:10
  and. Look at my pitch and Golikante.
• 42:12
  Yeah, yeah. But you get these different
• 42:13
  types of managers, ones are like really rigid in the system,
• 42:15
  others are more like pragmatic and they'll look at the squad
• 42:18
  and play the system which and contest that type of manager in
• 42:21
  it. So.
• 42:22
  You know, Arteta switched the system up though we when we won
• 42:24
  the FA Cup and that we played a three at the back.
• 42:26
  Do you remember? I don't.
• 42:27
  And we didn't lose, Yeah. Which one?
• 42:29
  Sorry. When he put when Arteta first
• 42:31
  getting into that half the season, the half.
• 42:32
  FA Cup. Yeah, well, yeah, we won, We
• 42:36
  won, we won. We won the the fake FA Cup,
• 42:38
  right? Same as Liverpool with the fake
• 42:40
  title, but he played that three at the back and I'll run to the
• 42:43
  the thing. We'd beat City and Liverpool in
• 42:45
  the cup and we beat Chelsea in the you.
• 42:48
  Had a few beating us every year in the FA Cup.
• 42:52
  You beat us in the cup. It was one or two finals.
• 42:54
  I think they won a penalty shootout.
• 42:56
  Yeah, Oh yeah, the one with Mertesacker pocketed Diego
• 42:59
  Costa. Yes, she did.
• 43:01
  Look at the highlights. I can't remember.
• 43:03
  It I haven't and I will never watch those.
• 43:06
  I'll ping it over after. But yeah, on United squad, no, I
• 43:11
  don't think they're good enough. And to be fair, that is the
• 43:13
  that's the argument for Reuben in and that's what the Reuben in
• 43:16
  crew say. It's like can't keep flipping
• 43:18
  managers like the squad is not good enough like and that's a
• 43:21
  fairpoint. I agree.
• 43:22
  I don't think the squad is good enough.
• 43:23
  But Reuben Ameren at United will be remembered for that tactics
• 43:28
  board at Grimsby in the rain like that.
• 43:30
  That's what it'll. Be remembered the nail in the
• 43:33
  coffin yeah, he's still there. But yeah, that that I knew as
• 43:37
  soon as I saw it live on TV, I was like straight in the chat
• 43:41
  like this gold. Yes, and exactly.
• 43:43
  I saw that as well. I don't.
• 43:44
  Want to see that man when it's like it was like the 80th minute
• 43:47
  or something. He's on his cat and it was the
• 43:49
  rain. He's going to stand up and say
• 43:50
  to his players it's Grimsby, don't you like Ferguson when he
• 43:52
  says it's Tottenham lads like. And he's got mount a left wing
• 43:55
  back. It's like, what are you doing?
• 43:58
  But yeah, no, I don't think the players are good enough.
• 43:59
  And the only thing I will say, obviously it's like Bruno and
• 44:02
  Casimiro in that double pivot is that's like me lining up a FIFA
• 44:05
  game. Do you know what I mean?
• 44:06
  Like you put the big so it's like that's.
• 44:08
  Never going to be one of the only people that like, maybe not
• 44:11
  as a person like or whatever, but I really, really like Bruno.
• 44:15
  I think what he brings to a team and offers is great and I think
• 44:18
  he does actually care. Things just got like quite ratty
• 44:21
  attributes. So people like, look at him.
• 44:23
  And like, yeah. But I actually think he's a
• 44:26
  brilliant, brilliant player and I would be trying to build my
• 44:30
  team around him. But obviously that system just
• 44:31
  doesn't accommodate that. So I know you guys have had
• 44:34
  loads of chats on this podcast and like you could put it into
• 44:37
  much better words than me about whether he should be sacrificed
• 44:41
  and sold if you're not going to get the most out of them.
• 44:42
  Or do you sell your one of your best players in order to
• 44:47
  accommodate a manager that might even be there in a couple of
• 44:50
  months? So it's a tough one, but I did
• 44:52
  want to congratulate him because camera and that is because he's
• 44:55
  gone above Wolf McGuinness win ratio since the Second World War
• 45:01
  with that win against Oh no, he's not got them anymore.
• 45:03
  Second bottom. He's actually third bottom, but
• 45:05
  I can't remember the geezers. They're both in the tixties in
• 45:08
  the 70s. That's what I mean, man.
• 45:09
  Like when you look at little wins.
• 45:10
  Though man, there's. So like, we finished 15th last
• 45:13
  season and lost the European finals, I suppose.
• 45:15
  And I have to keep saying it because like.
• 45:17
  Spurs finished with their 16th. Will they blow you or?
• 45:19
  Yeah, they'll blow us. Yeah, 16.
• 45:21
  They've had a good start to the season that's.
• 45:22
  True. I mean Thomas Frankston.
• 45:25
  Listen, everything's still a very small sample size.
• 45:27
  That's the one thing I would say yeah, yeah.
• 45:29
  In terms of the season, because you've got false positions
• 45:33
  everywhere. Yeah, yeah.
• 45:34
  People have played like harder opposition, easier opposition,
• 45:37
  that's whatever you want to call it.
• 45:39
  But yeah, maybe give it a little bit more time.
• 45:41
  And I think leads cause spurs some, some problems and they
• 45:44
  could have easily on another day lost that game.
• 45:46
  So. Of course, yeah.
• 45:47
  And it's like, who you gonna bring?
• 45:49
  Goes back to what James was saying about Arsenal.
• 45:51
  You can say you wanna bring in. Tell us.
• 45:53
  No, I'm saying Southgate could do a job at United, but only. 1.
• 46:00
  But only cuz we're a fucking. We're a beast.
• 46:02
  That's happened. We're a beast of a club and it's
• 46:05
  the whole club that's messed in. Imagine that went wrong though
• 46:07
  you brought. Himself, yeah, I know it could.
• 46:08
  It could go badly and so yeah, that's the risk with like even
• 46:12
  any manager. You think to manage the
• 46:13
  institution because of his experience with the FA, That's
• 46:16
  what you're. Going basically, yeah, it's like
• 46:17
  because of the size of the club and also I think there's so many
• 46:20
  problems at the club like recruitment, you could say it's
• 46:22
  got a little bit better, but it's still question marks just
• 46:25
  generally. Southgate help recruitment.
• 46:27
  It's not even, it's the culture of the club and it like England,
• 46:30
  fans and players enjoy. That out.
• 46:33
  Yeah, that's the only part. Do you know like when you
• 46:35
  compare? It's way out though.
• 46:36
  It's just like the crop of players and.
• 46:38
  It's probably a bit of both they're.
• 46:39
  All they're all mates now and they're coming through together.
• 46:41
  I think he would have helped a little.
• 46:43
  Bit I think he made that culture.
• 46:44
  Yeah, it's a bit of both. He needed, he needed that group.
• 46:46
  It's a fairpoint. Yeah, it's not.
• 46:48
  It's not going to be a fucking magic bullets.
• 46:51
  Yeah, I don't. Know, do you want to touch on
• 46:52
  England quickly? Yeah, that segue.
• 46:54
  Yeah, yeah, let's do it, Let's do it.
• 46:55
  So like how you feeling about England?
• 46:58
  Yeah, I feel all right. I think the last the
• 46:59
  international Britain. I'm not someone who like really
• 47:01
  religiously. Yeah, follows like like waiting
• 47:04
  on Twitter to see the next squad or like yeah, hundreds to make
• 47:08
  sure I was a. Regime qualify, but like that's
• 47:11
  not it's just a big. Talking point.
• 47:12
  And I think they're they're looking for.
• 47:14
  Clicks because he missed the last one due to injury, yeah.
• 47:17
  And The thing is, the squad was done really well last time.
• 47:20
  So he's kind of just bond with the same, but it'd be a bit
• 47:23
  different story if Jude was fully fit and he's just, which
• 47:26
  he hasn't. But at the same time, Tuku is
• 47:29
  someone who will make difficult decisions.
• 47:31
  And even dropping Jude when he's available because he wasn't in
• 47:34
  the last 1 is a big decision. And you can surmise whether you
• 47:38
  think that's him sending a message or not to Jude because
• 47:41
  listen, it's it's all like you're all you're just
• 47:44
  speculating, aren't you? You don't know what he's what's
• 47:46
  actually gone on, but you can tell Jude wants to be the man.
• 47:48
  You can tell. Yeah, he's.
• 47:49
  Got. He's got also in tournaments.
• 47:51
  We need someone with Yeah. Yeah, no, I agree.
• 47:53
  I agree. Doesn't do that.
• 47:54
  And listen, Jude's going to be on the plane going to the World
• 47:57
  Cup, so it's kind of Much Ado about nothing, I think.
• 47:59
  Yeah, agreed. Yeah, like, no, Adam Walton was
• 48:02
  a weird one. I thought he's been playing
• 48:04
  really well. Maybe he just wanted to go again
• 48:06
  with the same, exactly the same squad as we went with last time.
• 48:08
  But. You never know with these games
• 48:11
  as well, maybe you've seen enough of war.
• 48:12
  And like, sometimes it's like, well, I know I'm probably going
• 48:14
  to take. Yeah, yeah, minutes.
• 48:16
  But until it gets a bit serious about the Wales game in Serbia
• 48:19
  or Latvia coming up, let's give a few people that are on the
• 48:21
  fringes. Yeah.
• 48:23
  And I guess that's what these like.
• 48:24
  Well, we need to qualify, but you kind of want to test out the
• 48:27
  fringe players. It's all.
• 48:28
  Exploratory, isn't it? Yeah, I want to hear what you
• 48:30
  think, James, about Tooshaw because you obviously you were
• 48:33
  like, oh, let's get a winning manager in, right?
• 48:35
  And we've gone down that route. So yeah, how you feeling about
• 48:37
  Tooshaw in charge? Yeah, going back to Southgate in
• 48:40
  the transition, Southgate done the same for England and Myers
• 48:44
  that Arteta done for Arsenal and made us believe again.
• 48:46
  That made me believe that Arsenal could win something we
• 48:48
  haven't yet and same with England, but just couldn't quite
• 48:51
  get us over the line. So it's a bit of a weird one,
• 48:53
  but was too cool. I think he has been there and
• 48:55
  done it. He's managed some big players
• 48:57
  over time, he has won things and he is quite a lot of systematic
• 49:02
  manager, isn't he? Like he's not just like an
• 49:03
  anxiety. It's like, go best team on the
• 49:05
  pitch, go do your thing. He's quite systematic, but all
• 49:08
  elders aren't judging my tournament.
• 49:10
  Fair play, yeah. And how many tournaments did
• 49:12
  South Go have? Yeah, he's like at least four.
• 49:15
  Yeah, Maybe five. Yeah.
• 49:17
  Yeah. I was going to say, how do you
• 49:19
  feel about no, There's a big debate about how the the
• 49:22
  national coach should be from that nation.
• 49:24
  How? How do you What's your view on?
• 49:26
  That yeah, it's a weird one in it.
• 49:27
  I'm all right with it, to be honest.
• 49:29
  Yeah, I'm all right with it. Yeah.
• 49:30
  Simply the managers win stuff with other countries.
• 49:33
  It's happened with loads of loads of nations, Yeah.
• 49:36
  Like, yeah. So I'm fine with it because,
• 49:38
  yeah. Because like the argument is
• 49:40
  like, oh, the bit the big nations should have, like, you
• 49:42
  know, domestic people. But then what about the smaller
• 49:44
  nations like? Yeah, but.
• 49:46
  Where who is a good? English the line.
• 49:48
  Which England manager could do a better job in the so-called like
• 49:50
  English? Eddie Howe would have been the
• 49:51
  number one. That's the only name though,
• 49:53
  Eddie Howe. Yeah, Eddie Howe, who you're
• 49:55
  looking? At this moment, like would he
• 49:58
  ever walk away from Newcastle and take that job?
• 50:02
  I don't know. Well, maybe they, to be fair,
• 50:04
  maybe it was like the FA, like they've gone down the South gate
• 50:06
  route. A lot of people were saying we
• 50:08
  need a winner, let's just try it for one.
• 50:09
  It's only an 18 month deal, right?
• 50:11
  So let's try it for one tournament, see how it goes.
• 50:13
  And then they could always go to Eddie Howe, couldn't they?
• 50:15
  And try or you. Know and listen this, as we said
• 50:17
  earlier in the Portage results based business, if he went to
• 50:20
  the World Cup, yeah, no, I'm gonna give a shit.
• 50:24
  You know, The thing is as well, though, it's not like we can be
• 50:26
  like, not like other nations could be like, right?
• 50:28
  We'll bring Lampard back because he won the World Cup with
• 50:30
  England. We haven't got that true.
• 50:32
  Yeah, true. But you've got England legend
• 50:35
  but Rooney in that we've seen Rooney's managerial career and
• 50:38
  how it's gone so. Yeah, yeah, that's true.
• 50:40
  But the one thing I want to touch on about England as well,
• 50:42
  because I think there's a bit of debate about like, the fact that
• 50:46
  Henderson is picked by like, Tushil and like, you know,
• 50:50
  everyone's like, oh, Henderson's passed it.
• 50:51
  Harry, I'll go to you first. Like how do you feel about
• 50:54
  someone that old being picked for England?
• 50:57
  It's I'd have a problem maybe if it came to the World Cup and
• 51:01
  we're still taking Henderson. Maybe he will, I don't know.
• 51:04
  But I don't have much of a problem with it in these squads
• 51:07
  as I do as some other people do. Like, I know a lot of people
• 51:11
  really kick off when they see his name.
• 51:13
  Listen, there's, there's 7-6 or seven people sometimes that
• 51:16
  don't even play from these scores in the qualifiers.
• 51:19
  And if you're you've got all these young players, these
• 51:21
  fringe players we were talking about and you want to bring them
• 51:24
  into some of them their first ever time with England, you want
• 51:26
  them to see like standards and levels and what is what's it,
• 51:30
  what it means to be an England player.
• 51:32
  And say what you want about Jordan Henderson and listen, I
• 51:35
  think he's a decent, decent enough player.
• 51:37
  He kept. One can start.
• 51:38
  Captain, the Tywin inside, I don't think he's the most
• 51:41
  talented ever, but you can't deny his, like, passion for
• 51:44
  work. Great.
• 51:44
  And you know for a fact, when when you look up to Saint
• 51:47
  George's Park or whatever, he's going to let no like standards
• 51:50
  drop. He's going to like try.
• 51:51
  He's probably feeling grateful to even be there anyway, because
• 51:54
  he thought he would never get caught up again.
• 51:56
  Maybe. He's getting in on that, not his
• 51:57
  ability he's got. 100%. Yeah, he's got to maintain that.
• 52:02
  Yeah, I think he did bag a little assist against us, which
• 52:04
  was really long. And against us, but everyone.
• 52:07
  Yeah, James. But how would you feel about if
• 52:09
  he actually went to the World Cup?
• 52:12
  If we lined up at the World Cup and Henderson was sat starting
• 52:15
  in the middle of. The pitch, No, no, not starting.
• 52:16
  Let's just say, let's say he's on the plane. 0% chance.
• 52:19
  And it doesn't affect me that much.
• 52:21
  I know people well, Wharton didn't go, but Henderson did it.
• 52:24
  And I'm like, if Wharton's not starting and he's not going to
• 52:26
  come off the bench, what can he offer to that?
• 52:28
  True. Like, not much, really.
• 52:30
  Ain't got experience? Has he?
• 52:31
  Yeah, so. I agree with Harry and he does
• 52:33
  set Spanish, he's been a captain.
• 52:35
  Lot of Liverpool, massive club, one of the biggest clubs in the
• 52:37
  world, won the CL, won premiership.
• 52:40
  Like, you know, I mean like ability wise, like I don't think
• 52:43
  he's the best, but setting standards and training and
• 52:45
  making sure people are in bed on time, you know, he's doing that.
• 52:48
  Yeah, You can't have people like a bunch of young boys who are
• 52:52
  all mates rocking up, thinking it's a jolly up and like a like
• 52:54
  a getaway trip. You've got to go there and like,
• 52:57
  like preparation starts at every England camp and like, you need
• 53:00
  people like that who are literally just going to be, as
• 53:02
  you said, get to bed on time, whatever.
• 53:03
  Regimented. Take it.
• 53:04
  Also all clubs about that we're yeah, Georgian as a model like
• 53:08
  example of like professional footballer isn't here like brain
• 53:11
  wise and stuff like that, like everyone.
• 53:13
  Yeah. Well, it was true.
• 53:13
  It was a smart signing from us. It was cheap or free or whatever
• 53:16
  that every club has got that pay that you're like, they're
• 53:18
  probably. Gary Neville was only getting
• 53:20
  contracts like for the last five years of his career for that
• 53:22
  reason. Just, you know, being a model.
• 53:25
  Yeah, was it, was it the tools in it?
• 53:28
  Yeah, to that level like because I know Neville plays down his
• 53:31
  own ability and the reason he was there, but sometimes.
• 53:34
  No, I think to be fair, like in in his peak, say like up to like
• 53:38
  early 30s, he was a good solid right back.
• 53:40
  Like obviously had the partnership with Beckham.
• 53:42
  So he underplays that career. But then from like 3233 I think
• 53:45
  he got loads of injuries. So he always says when he knew
• 53:48
  his legs, when he. Came to Carrigo, yeah.
• 53:50
  Exactly. Yeah.
• 53:51
  So like those four years he was just Fergie's Lieutenant,
• 53:55
  basically Harry. Was trotting around the pitch
• 53:57
  at. One point exactly.
• 54:00
  But you want to. We've got video.
• 54:01
  Back. Do you know what I mean?
• 54:02
  Yeah, you need them people it. Makes a difference doesn't it
• 54:05
  though? Like that's what Arsenal like
• 54:06
  for years, then like leaders and we've got that and we've got,
• 54:09
  like you said, Harry, I really like that you said that about
• 54:11
  young leaders in the team, like Kai.
• 54:12
  See those becoming a leader. He's what, 2425?
• 54:15
  That's yeah, 23 or 24. Yeah, that same effect.
• 54:18
  And most people forget he's 25 years old.
• 54:20
  Yeah, pretty. We're 10 years older than, well,
• 54:22
  I'm was getting there, 10 years older than these players, which
• 54:24
  is actually really scary because like you forget when they go out
• 54:27
  there and boss games like they're just kids.
• 54:29
  I love, I love Declaman and he's he's scoring more goals on it
• 54:32
  because he's got like more protection behind him, I think.
• 54:35
  He's not playing as deep, like he's got legs like Super Mendy
• 54:38
  that I didn't mention him much. I know he's another one that he
• 54:41
  doesn't like, like the world, but when you watch him play
• 54:43
  football. That's another player like you
• 54:45
  brought. You brought him off the bench on
• 54:47
  the weekend, I think and you like you weren't doing that 2-3
• 54:51
  years ago, bringing that. No, he.
• 54:52
  Was getting a rest at 100. £50 million player and like just
• 54:55
  coming on and just bossing the game, whatever.
• 54:57
  Yeah, that's another one. We got Norgard like he was
• 54:58
  Brentford catching last year, and I know that he's very highly
• 55:01
  rated at Brentford. I've got a Brentford fan at work
• 55:02
  actually. And under underwhelming signing,
• 55:05
  but it's like when you actually think about it, need the captain
• 55:07
  a Premier League team. You've got to have experience
• 55:09
  balls been around. Yeah, he's one of your like,
• 55:11
  fringe players even like. Captain And that thing about
• 55:14
  setting the stands is true. When them players come at that
• 55:16
  age and they know they are not the best player in the team or
• 55:18
  they're not like young so they can get away with it.
• 55:20
  They have to like I've been there.
• 55:21
  Like my Sunday team last year I was one of the older ones in the
• 55:23
  team. Yeah, definitely not the best
• 55:25
  technically, but I knew that if I turned up and was having my
• 55:27
  game ahead on the stuff like that, that like you can make a
• 55:29
  difference, can't you? If that makes sense.
• 55:31
  And that's what gets you in the team.
• 55:32
  You have to have balance football teams as Bill Equate
• 55:34
  was the same. I think he had probably one or
• 55:36
  two years too long at Chelsea in terms of your ability.
• 55:38
  Yeah, I think like we kind of protect.
• 55:40
  What a man. With the three at the back as
• 55:42
  well. One of you, yeah, it's worth it.
• 55:44
  He was an unbelievable back post defender.
• 55:46
  Like just yeah, yeah. I love Davey's quality.
• 55:50
  All right. So there's one place to wrap up,
• 55:51
  but we'll talk a little bit about FPL.
• 55:54
  And just before we talk, because there's a new thing, there's a
• 55:57
  few new like chips and stuff this season.
• 55:58
  I only found out today that you can have, you can bank up to
• 56:01
  five free transfers. Yeah.
• 56:03
  But before we get into that. Last year actually.
• 56:05
  But was it the last year that would explain your legal?
• 56:09
  Yeah, true, true. I'm doing terrible decision.
• 56:12
  But can we can Harry, please, can you just explain to
• 56:15
  listeners when you stitched up James 2 minutes before the
• 56:19
  deadline? And then I'll tell my side as
• 56:21
  well. Yeah, when?
• 56:22
  When's the Saturday morning deadline like?
• 56:24
  11 AM in it. It's 11 A used to be 1130 now
• 56:26
  it's 11 AM. So just casually dropping in
• 56:29
  when Isaac was in his prime. Well not prime but like pomp for
• 56:32
  in FPL, like bagging goals for fun.
• 56:35
  Like essential. If you didn't have him, you had
• 56:37
  an issue. Just dropped in at 1058.
• 56:40
  Oh shit. He's like out for the season.
• 56:43
  This guy's driving on the motorway with his misses, pulls
• 56:45
  over the pulls the car over to the hard shoulder to change his
• 56:48
  fucking FPL team take these like out two minutes before deadline
• 56:52
  against Leicester at home and yeah, he hasn't lived that one
• 56:55
  down since. So.
• 56:56
  My side is I've obviously got the thing.
• 56:57
  I'm driving to a kids birthday party and my boys in the back,
• 57:00
  are we there yet? Are we there yet?
• 57:02
  And I'm like, I haven't even I've done my team except for the
• 57:04
  week. I'm like I'm well, I'm well
• 57:05
  ahead of the curve yet and I've just it's like I said, label it
• 57:09
  weren't quite a motorway and it's like off the dirt track and
• 57:11
  I've gone down this label and she's going what are you doing?
• 57:13
  We're going to be late. And I said I'm new to my team
• 57:15
  and she's like a pathetic. So I've seen, because I've seen
• 57:17
  the message on the screen in the car just said he sat out Harry
• 57:21
  and Harry used to help me at that.
• 57:23
  Time. I was like, yeah, you put in
• 57:28
  the, you was trying. To beat someone.
• 57:29
  Else he was trying. To beat someone else.
• 57:31
  He wasn't the target, but yeah. I'll take it, I'll take it.
• 57:35
  So I pulled over, my team got to the party and I was sorry, babe,
• 57:39
  they've got there now. I've seen that messages and
• 57:41
  Harry's like, why did you do that?
• 57:42
  I bet you had a good good. Time.
• 57:44
  Well, I think you got a brace, didn't you?
• 57:45
  You got a brace as well I think. Yeah, that's what I remember and
• 57:48
  I can't remember he transferred in, but I'm sure they flopped as
• 57:50
  well. So they didn't do anything.
• 57:52
  Yeah. But but they see them right, So.
• 57:56
  You've got you're down, Harry, you're down.
• 57:58
  Listen, listen, I'm not. Marathon not a Sprint.
• 58:00
  Marathon, not a. Sprint, there's chips in both
• 58:03
  half of the season yeah, this year, so you've got all of your
• 58:05
  chips in the first half and all them in the second-half.
• 58:08
  So I'll just say right now that league position is a bit like
• 58:11
  the Premier League. It's a bit falsely inflated
• 58:13
  because some people use chips, some people have got 5 free
• 58:15
  transfers, some people have got none.
• 58:16
  So we'll see what happens when it comes to me.
• 58:20
  After Michael's Leicester season last year, that he's he's.
• 58:24
  Gone. He's gone.
• 58:25
  So it's what? It's wild card 2 halves as well,
• 58:28
  yeah. Yeah, that's what's always been
• 58:31
  two Yeah, triple caps. It's the triple capsule because
• 58:33
  there's no, there's not gonna be any double S, is there?
• 58:35
  Like this side of Christmas. People have used it.
• 58:37
  Like Harlem, they've got lucky because he's got what?
• 58:40
  You'll probably see me go up and down.
• 58:42
  I'm in, I'm in a work league, I'm in a work league which is
• 58:45
  monthly. So 5 lbs like salary a month and
• 58:47
  the winner of the month gets £50 because of 10 of us.
• 58:50
  And then at the last, so like one guy's come like 3 chips in
• 58:54
  the first month. He's like well I've got the
• 58:55
  money back for the year I think. I think that's what tax has
• 58:57
  done. Is your daughter Chips?
• 58:59
  And now he's up there in second doing a cosy.
• 59:02
  Yeah, it was second now, isn't it coming from an Arsenal van?
• 59:05
  That's interesting then. So you've got to use those four
• 59:08
  like main or three main chips like inside of Christmas.
• 59:11
  They've given us 5 free transfers for AFCON, which
• 59:13
  people have fuming about. Yeah, which there's only like 2.
• 59:18
  Well, actually saying that the African players smashed it this
• 59:20
  this weekend like some menu and. But I just don't foresee us
• 59:25
  needing five extra free transfers.
• 59:26
  So it's kind of, yeah, they're trying to keep engagement as
• 59:30
  high as possible and reduce that percentage of drop off of like
• 59:33
  people losing interest in their teams because they they log in
• 59:36
  and they realise that, oh, I'm completely out of here.
• 59:39
  I've only got 2 transfers now. You've got 5 transfers now I'll
• 59:42
  give you an extra 5. So you're never really out of
• 59:45
  it. But it's like the little nerds
• 59:46
  who actually give a shit about it who then complaining that
• 59:49
  they make it too easy for the casual.
• 59:51
  So what's our predictions? And last thing, predictions for
• 59:54
  the top 4 then go on. Well, in we've done.
• 59:58
  We've done the predictions on the desk.
• 59:59
  Let's kick it off. Yeah, yeah, I'm green.
• 1:00:02
  Go. What's your revised 1, James?
• 1:00:04
  You go first. I'm not revising we're.
• 1:00:06
  Going to do it. Oh, you got it.
• 1:00:08
  We got. It you've got it on a clip with
• 1:00:11
  the end news you're going to do Yeah, I'm going to say Arsenal,
• 1:00:15
  Arsenal, City, Liverpool, Chelsea.
• 1:00:16
  That's my fault. In order.
• 1:00:18
  Fair play. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:00:20
  So. I think City will be there if
• 1:00:21
  Harlan carries on. I think any team will be
• 1:00:23
  anywhere with him in their side, yeah.
• 1:00:25
  Harry. I'd said city, city, sorry in my
• 1:00:29
  prediction and then that didn't look too great a few weeks in.
• 1:00:32
  Yeah, I'm going to actually stick with that because before
• 1:00:35
  Marlins show and I think they'll they'll still be about it's
• 1:00:38
  still got Pep. I'm going to say Arsenal very,
• 1:00:41
  very, very close second. I think Liverpool will, yeah,
• 1:00:45
  they'll take some time to gel and but listen, if they do gel,
• 1:00:48
  it could be curtains on their side anyway.
• 1:00:50
  But, and then I'm going to say as much as I don't want to, I
• 1:00:54
  want to put a tie out. I'm going to say Chelsea 4th
• 1:00:55
  just because of the defensive issues right now.
• 1:00:59
  Well, the centre back issues and yeah, that's it.
• 1:01:04
  Well, it's top five now, really. It's top five.
• 1:01:06
  I was going to say, yeah, true. I'm going to Chuck Spurs in
• 1:01:08
  there. Fair play.
• 1:01:10
  Not Ruben. No, some people had him inmate
• 1:01:14
  like start of the season. Where did you have him?
• 1:01:17
  I thought we'd have a bad season, not even in the top
• 1:01:20
  seven. I don't think I had a So yeah, I
• 1:01:23
  think I picked Liverpool partly as a defence mechanism because
• 1:01:27
  if they win it this season it's 21 and we've got nothing left to
• 1:01:29
  hold on to. Would you think you'd ever sing
• 1:01:32
  20 times again if they get to 21?
• 1:01:34
  Would it kill that song completely?
• 1:01:35
  Yeah, basically. Kind of touch, doesn't it?
• 1:01:37
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Which is pretty crazy because
• 1:01:39
  that was like a staple song for. Yeah, so we've not got much left
• 1:01:43
  after that, but I went Liverpool, Arsenal.
• 1:01:45
  Off it left. Yeah, exactly.
• 1:01:47
  City, Chelsea, so I'll stick with that as well.
• 1:01:49
  Yeah, gone, gone. Three different teams.
• 1:01:50
  So yeah, we'll see how it goes. And obviously World Cup winner.
• 1:01:55
  It's coming home, boys, isn't it?
• 1:01:56
  Surely.