Latest / The Calcio Guys / Celebrating Inter's Scudetto & Rating Italy's EURO Squad - Ep. 229 Ft. Alex Raffa

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Celebrating Inter's Scudetto & Rating Italy's EURO Squad - Ep. 229 Ft. Alex Raffa · The Calcio Guys

• 0:26
  A season to remember for inter fans, and uh to commemorate it. We're
• 0:30
  joined by our friend Alessandro Rafa from Interviews podcast that hosts with our other friend
• 0:36
  John Marco. But Alex, how's going. It's going well. Thanks for
• 0:41
  for having me on. I I promise not to gloat too much here,
• 0:46
  but obviously I gotta I gotta do some celebrating. Listen, I'm gonna I
• 0:50
  said, I said congratulations off the pod, so I'm gonna say it on
• 0:53
  the pod as well. Guys, from Amelista to our my cousin, my
• 0:57
  cousin basically as Arista, Uh, I congratulations. I'm gonna leave it at
• 1:03
  that. You guys deserved it, but I'm gonna leave it at that.
• 1:06
  I appreciate it. I appreciate it. It's not you don't. You don't
• 1:08
  see too much of the congratulations on the in the Twitter world, so it's
• 1:12
  good to hear a little a little appreciation for what was. Ultimately, nobody
• 1:18
  wants to do it face to face. Nobody wants to do it face to
• 1:19
  face. I'm doing it face to face, guys. You know, I
• 1:23
  think that is that we're here tonight with the stupid HU. But I respect
• 1:27
  it. I respect it for sure, joined by obviously Iiano myself, you
• 1:34
  know, the county guys, Jenny's I can't make it. But you know
• 1:37
  it's gonna be a lot to talk about. You know what. We don't
• 1:40
  want to talk some intern but we also want to talk about Juty later.
• 1:42
  We're all all three of us are wearing our Zootie shirts, so you know
• 1:48
  it works something yeah, exactly something Italy, So it works out. You
• 1:53
  know. Obviously h thirty man provisional lists for the Euros was named. We'll
• 1:57
  talk about that later. Obviously a couple of in players, but I mean,
• 2:00
  first of all, I just feel to win the Scudetto as an interfense,
• 2:05
  first one in three years. Yeah. We I was talking about it
• 2:08
  with Johnny on a pod today, we actually recorded and we were giving like
• 2:13
  our our number grade for the season. And you know, it was a
• 2:17
  pretty quick exit in the cups in both you know, Champions League and Colpetalia.
• 2:22
  But the thing about the Scudetto win that makes it, you know,
• 2:25
  for me, I said nine out of ten. The thing about the Scudetto
• 2:29
  win is that it's not it wasn't just a scu that though, right,
• 2:32
  there's a historical element to it of it being the twentieth right, and it's
• 2:37
  a little bit different because now you're sowing the second star on the shirt.
• 2:40
  And it had a obviously in the context of you know, seasons that we've
• 2:46
  seen, dominant seasons that we've seen. To win it with five match days
• 2:51
  left in the season, it was just, you know, a tremendous year.
• 2:54
  A little bit towards the end of the year, you're like, you
• 2:57
  know, you're looking at these performances, you don't really have much to h
• 3:00
  to judge, right, because they're not really they're not exactly motivated to win
• 3:05
  all those games. But it was a hell of a year. It's an
• 3:07
  amazing achievement. And also, you know, I think a lot of people
• 3:12
  are really happy for in Zagie because he's been you know, with Lazio and
• 3:15
  with Inta, he's been close before and to finally get over the hump.
• 3:20
  He's one of, you know, for for Italy fans, for Azuri fans,
• 3:23
  for cultural lovers, he is the epitome of of that Italian up and
• 3:30
  coming coach. Now he's known worldwide, so it's it's really nice that he
• 3:34
  was able to get the win, So we are very happy here in I
• 3:40
  completely forgot that's his first first Scudetto, like it feels like it feels like
• 3:46
  he's been with the team a long Grafiette, you know, Conte was coach
• 3:47
  last time, and yeah, and you're right, you know, he's he's
• 3:51
  one enough. We talked about it when we're recording our previous Team of Season
• 3:54
  episode where he's won a super cold coopate Italian in his first two seasons with
• 4:00
  interest. So he has all these hardware, he won cool battalily and went
• 4:02
  super cool with Lato. It's true, is it? Forgot? It was
• 4:05
  just for Scudetto. That was you know, that was a stigma around him.
• 4:10
  It's like he's a cup merchant and he falls short in the league every
• 4:13
  year, and uh, thirty eight games is different than than going through a
• 4:16
  knockout tournament. It takes a lot and obviously part of that is also health.
• 4:21
  Right, we didn't really have too much in terms of injuries, so
• 4:27
  you know, fingers crossed for next season and and really happy that that he
• 4:30
  was able to get his first first on the board, hopefully first of many.
• 4:34
  Yeah, I think, yeah, we we we referenced it in our
• 4:39
  in our previous episode as well. But you know, finally gaining over the
• 4:41
  hump, I think was was the big thing for her for for and talking
• 4:45
  like you said, you know, to be honest with you, I was
• 4:48
  never I was never the biggest fundest fan of his uh as a manager.
• 4:53
  And but what I will say again now that you're here, and I said
• 4:57
  it before, and again I'll say no, like I said that, you're
• 5:00
  year, but he has improved year after year after year, which you know,
• 5:06
  I remember the days where one of his players would get a yellow card
• 5:11
  and he would substitute them, like basically immediately, and he was too scared
• 5:15
  and he was too worried, and he didn't want this and he didn't want
• 5:17
  that. Fans were always pissed at him because he was just he wasn't that
• 5:23
  coach to like take you to the next level. It seemed like, you
• 5:28
  know, we said it right there. You know, he's had pretty much
• 5:30
  silverware in every season that he's been an inter coach. This one was obviously
• 5:35
  the biggest cherry, which was the Scudetto, And he finally got that.
• 5:39
  Would you say it's fair I saw that that he's improved a year in and
• 5:44
  year out, and you know what, what's the biggest thing that like,
• 5:48
  he has really upped his game in terms of being a manager at such a
• 5:53
  high level for such a big team in this in this league. Yeah,
• 5:58
  I think it's it's I think it's twofold. I think the first Tactically,
• 6:02
  he's definitely made some improvements. One of the criticisms that I think you can
• 6:08
  still lobby his way is sort of the inflexibility when it comes to the formation,
• 6:13
  right, it needs to be a three to five to two. Even
• 6:15
  with you know, Adnatovich and Alexis earlier on in the season being really out
• 6:19
  of form, there was a lot of conversation about whether they should go with
• 6:23
  an attack midfielder behind behind the striker and sort of get maybe Miki Tati in
• 6:30
  or even they were talking about sense and class and involved there. But he
• 6:31
  does have some rigidity in terms of the formation. But as far as the
• 6:35
  tactics are concerned, even last year when we had suffered twelve losses in the
• 6:41
  league and things were looking not so great for him, he changed the tactics
• 6:46
  of the team in terms of not pressing so high up the pitch, right,
• 6:50
  They didn't have the personnel to do that and starting to sit back a
• 6:54
  little bit, control possession and you know, hit teams on the break after
• 6:58
  they were getting attacks. He's shown in ability to sort of change the way
• 7:02
  that he approaches these games. I think one of the the other things that's
• 7:06
  really really come to the forest. His man management has definitely improved. You
• 7:13
  see, these players absolutely love him. You know, they call him Demona.
• 7:16
  He does have that fire on the side of the pitch. So it's
• 7:21
  not managed with managers. It's not too different than with players, like over
• 7:27
  time they mature and they add more to their game. Hakun was not this
• 7:30
  player early in his career, but over time you gain new experiences and you
• 7:35
  add more to your game. And I think in Zagi the same can be
• 7:39
  said for for managers and coaches. And it's why you don't just you know,
• 7:43
  throw them in the bin, like you let them. You let them
• 7:45
  learn and you let them gain some experience. So there's there's those two things.
• 7:49
  There's also his rotation. I think he really wanted to stick to less
• 7:55
  rotation and more sticking with his guys. We saw it in the in the
• 7:59
  European Cups, like he did rotate but the focus was on the league and
• 8:01
  for for the league this season, he pretty much went with his his tame,
• 8:07
  starting eleven for most of the season, so that continuity, obviously not
• 8:11
  having to deal with injuries like it really it really helped us to see the
• 8:15
  Nzoggie team that he wanted to put out there, game in and game out.
• 8:20
  And yeah, I think he has I think he has levels to to
• 8:24
  still reach. I don't think that this is is the pinnacle of his career.
• 8:26
  I think he's going to have a long career and and continue to adapt,
• 8:30
  continue to grow. That's my hope selfishly as as Antista, but hopefully
• 8:35
  you know in Italy they view him that way too, because he is he
• 8:39
  is such a promising manager. Do you think he can do it? Do
• 8:45
  you think he can do it? Do you think do you think he you
• 8:50
  know, are you gonna stick with into for the long haul? Like?
• 8:52
  What did he go abroad? Like what what do you take on another another
• 8:56
  another project somewhere else? Like where do you I mean obviously obviously you want
• 9:01
  his future to be at into I understand that, but like, yeah,
• 9:03
  that a realistic thing? Or is that? Like where do you see that?
• 9:05
  So the abroad. The abroad thing is interesting because he's not so interested
• 9:13
  in in English, right you can see he doesn't he doesn't, he doesn't
• 9:18
  really have that, you know, he's he speaks Italian and he also seems
• 9:20
  to be super comfortable with the league. I don't think he'll make a move
• 9:24
  abroad. The contract extension looks to be in place for twenty twenty seven.
• 9:30
  Twenty twenty seven is also looks like when oak Tree will look to sell.
• 9:35
  At this point, it looks like they want to be in here for the
• 9:39
  next several years. It's also when Madota's contract is up. It's when the
• 9:43
  rest of the management team. It seems like this twenty twenty seven date is
• 9:46
  when we may see a change into a new at afar there. But I
• 9:50
  think, you know, twenty twenty seven, he'll be with the team.
• 9:54
  That's that's the hope. The management team and him. They work really well
• 9:58
  together. There seems to be a good working relationship. You're winning the league,
• 10:01
  you have a squad that can do well in Europe. You know,
• 10:05
  this year it was tough. I think it was probably the toughest straw you
• 10:09
  can get for a Round of sixteen. But I think they want to stay
• 10:13
  together and build something. And there is something to be said for having a
• 10:18
  project that that lasts many years, like clop at Liverpool and you know several
• 10:22
  other examples. I think a manager can get a lot out of having a
• 10:26
  project and sticking with it as opposed to just chasing I don't want to say
• 10:31
  the bag, but you know, just chasing new experiences and stuff like that.
• 10:41
  Moving away from coaching. Obviously at Taro City, I mean MVP obviously
• 10:46
  didn't get the best Striker or you know, we were talking about it off
• 10:50
  air, but you know, these are pretty much participation trophies at this point.
• 10:54
  We all know he's the best striker, but you know, talk to
• 10:58
  us about his season and you know, to say, he's also enters MVP.
• 11:01
  But if there is someone else you would give the MVP trophy to besides
• 11:07
  him, wh would it be? No, it's it's gotta be Lotao.
• 11:09
  It's obviously, on a personal level, his best season. From a goal
• 11:13
  scoring perspective, I think he's had a very very interesting season where in the
• 11:18
  beginning of the year he could not stop scoring. I think he really really
• 11:22
  leaned into the new captain of a vite sort of title that he was given
• 11:30
  and he was a real leader for the squad, getting important goals. But
• 11:33
  there also was a period in the season which there's a lot to say for
• 11:37
  why it could have happened, but he didn't score in between I think February
• 11:43
  and maybe May. That is something that has been emblematic of his career.
• 11:48
  He will go he will have these droughts where for some reason you just can't
• 11:52
  put it in the back of the net. And he had his chances.
• 11:54
  It wasn't like he you know, he all of a sudden dropped off.
• 11:56
  He was getting in good positions, but the finishing was had changed. Maybe
• 12:03
  it does coincide with the fact that that's when the reports about his extension really
• 12:07
  started to ramp up, that the club and him were talking. He was
• 12:11
  constantly saying I want to be here. But obviously, as we see now
• 12:15
  with these reports, there's a gap in between in between the demands and what
• 12:18
  e't there is willing to pay. So who knows that if that played into
• 12:24
  his mentality during that stretch. Who knows if the penalty miss against Athletico,
• 12:28
  because that's been also something that we've seen from him before, where just heart
• 12:33
  he's it's not. It's it's one of the weaker areas of his game for
• 12:37
  a striker that is so complete. So he himself did a podcast I think
• 12:41
  yesterday or today where he talked about how that did affect him mentally and he
• 12:46
  was so upset, you know, on the plane ride home after missing that
• 12:50
  penalty. So he's had an immense season, but it's not all complete yet.
• 12:56
  It's not all complete. We've got to work on getting rid of those
• 13:00
  goal scoring droughts and it's got to be more consistent. For a player that
• 13:03
  was on pace to potentially beat Egwayan's record of thirty six goals in the league
• 13:07
  to end up with I think it was twenty six or twenty seven. There's
• 13:11
  still a level for him to get to. But he is the MVP,
• 13:15
  he was the captain of the team, scored goals in bunches and and for
• 13:20
  sure a player that I feel lucky to have on the team. I think
• 13:24
  he's a player that also has since he's joining there has has been up and
• 13:30
  down. Has it has improved as well? Obviously he's become he's matured,
• 13:33
  I think is pretty much what it is. I mean, he can't I
• 13:35
  don't remember how old it was in the game, but you know, from
• 13:39
  early twenties, not the mid twenties. And you know, he's he's grown
• 13:41
  as a as a player. He has some some experience under his belt,
• 13:46
  not only in the league, but even you know in Europe and stuff like
• 13:50
  that. You know, making a Champions League final to Scudetti, like we
• 13:54
  said, the copetalities the super copas to his World Cup winner, World Cup
• 13:58
  winner. Uh, you're right, Uh, But so again, I think
• 14:03
  you know, every striker goes through those droughts. I think you know the
• 14:07
  the but there's still a difference between those good strikers and great strikers. I
• 14:11
  think, you know, from looking on the outside in I think he's still
• 14:16
  in that, in that in the middle of that, you know, in
• 14:20
  terms of good and great, I think he's probably in the middle of that.
• 14:22
  And it's not to say that he's he's terrible. I think he's just
• 14:26
  he's better than good, but he's not you know, next level yet,
• 14:30
  Like I still think there's things to to grow, Like what you said,
• 14:33
  the and uh, you know what we'll see. But I think one other
• 14:37
  thing in for free into this season, you know, every team has to
• 14:41
  be you know, lucky with the injuries obviously, you know it's it's it's
• 14:46
  at the end of the day, it becomes a luck thing. It almost
• 14:48
  seems like, you know, if you if you're if you get you know,
• 14:50
  a bunch of injuries in bunches sporadically throughout the year. It's just one
• 14:54
  of those things where you have to adapt. Even though I didn't really have
• 14:58
  to go with many injuries. I know people gonna say, oh, yeah,
• 15:01
  but you know, Quadrado was out and you know this player was out.
• 15:05
  But it's like guys like Lataro was there. You know, the main
• 15:09
  guys were there, like they were there, they were all there. So
• 15:13
  but one thing I want to say is that, and I don't know,
• 15:16
  you know, if it's a credit to Maratta or who it may be,
• 15:18
  but the depth for you guys this year was was was huge because I even
• 15:22
  think, and I hate to bring back the uvas of the past, but
• 15:28
  you know, the the uv A and the uv B back in the days
• 15:31
  of them winning Scudetti after Scudetti were we're able to compete against pretty much anybody.
• 15:39
  I think, would it be safe to say for you other said that
• 15:41
  inter kind of was in that same thing in terms of their A squad and
• 15:45
  their B squad pretty much can compete with with with anybody on all fronts.
• 15:50
  Is that safe to say? And how much did that help you guys this
• 15:52
  season? It was? It was immense. Like you said, it wasn't
• 15:56
  There weren't injuries to the point where we had lost guys for an extended period
• 16:00
  of time. Outside of you know, you mentioned Kuadado, he was out
• 16:03
  for months. We did see injuries like Duram he was out for several you
• 16:08
  know, important matches, Haka on the same thing. But as far as
• 16:11
  the depth is concerned, the team itself had really really good depth outside of
• 16:18
  one position group, that being the strikers, right, and that was this
• 16:21
  is something that you'll see from INTEISTI going into the season with Aronatovich and Alexis
• 16:26
  as your third and fourth options. That was that was you know, minimal
• 16:32
  depth at that one very very important position group. You'll see INTEA this summer
• 16:37
  be constantly be talking about forwards, whether it's good Minson obviously they brought in
• 16:41
  Taremi, so that was a position that the depth was not super great,
• 16:45
  but it also coincided with the first you know, twenty goal plus assists season
• 16:52
  for Marcus Durdam in his career. Obviously Lotado going off and having the best
• 16:56
  season of his career, so that sort of mad asked the lack of depth
• 17:00
  in the attack, but the rest of the team, you know, Mikitadian
• 17:06
  played a lot of minutes. H Fatzi off the bench was he didn't play
• 17:11
  as much as people thought he did, but the numbers in terms of his
• 17:14
  productivity was huge. I mean, the guy was coming off the bench and
• 17:18
  scoring really really important goals in huge games like Verona and Udiness that ultimately,
• 17:22
  those are the games that you need to win if you're gonna bring in a
• 17:26
  title. Great record against the top teams, but those are the teams that
• 17:29
  when it comes down to the wire, that know how to how to play
• 17:33
  you tough and it's a one one game heading into the heading into extra time,
• 17:37
  there a player like who can pop up anywhere and put the ball in
• 17:40
  the back, and then that was huge. The depth at the wing backs
• 17:44
  right Carlos Guso was was huge for us. D'armian coming in for Dumfries when
• 17:48
  Dumfries went down, and then in the defense, I mean, you know,
• 17:52
  to be able to go from Pavard to a player like b Sek,
• 17:56
  you know, playing in the Danish League all of a sudden coming up here
• 17:59
  at twenty two years old in Sea being you know, a huge huge for
• 18:03
  us. They got it, they hit they hit it right on a few
• 18:07
  of the transfers that they brought in, like m p Sec. But as
• 18:11
  far as depth is concerned, if I'm looking ahead that forward group, you
• 18:17
  know, now with that m be coming in, it looks better, but
• 18:18
  I think there's still there's still some work to do. If you're going to
• 18:22
  be competing on fronts like a Champions League, Cap Club, World Cop and
• 18:26
  so forth, there's a lot, there's a lot to play for and you
• 18:30
  hope to bring in some of those those trophies. So depth is important.
• 18:33
  Death is very very important. Is there anyone you'd specifically target for the forwards?
• 18:42
  Yeah? Yeah, Goodmanson is a guy that I really really want and
• 18:45
  I like him because he's a different type of player to what we see.
• 18:52
  I think the closest thing you can say is Alexis because he's the one that
• 18:56
  drops and and picks up the ball, but he's not the same Alexis that
• 18:59
  we've seen in the So I think Goodminson. He's a good distributor, he's
• 19:03
  a really good goal scorer, not being out and out nine, but he's
• 19:06
  still very very productive in terms of getting goals. So I think the play
• 19:11
  style, it's a different It adds a different element that brings that off the
• 19:15
  bench. Is uh is a way to switch things up against teams. I
• 19:18
  think he would fit in very very well after a breakout season with with Genoa.
• 19:25
  Yeah, fourteen goals, it's not something to snuff, you know,
• 19:27
  so I think yeah, yeah, I think it was fourteen fourteen goals for
• 19:33
  US. I think eighteen contributions only in Sadiah, right, So you know
• 19:40
  that would be interesting to see. We'll see if we'll see if they let
• 19:44
  them goal. But I think another name, And you know we've spoke in
• 19:48
  our previous episode, you know, Team of the Season. We even set
• 19:52
  a bit off air, you know, inter had we did. We had
• 19:56
  to play in every position group from keeper down to four word, right,
• 20:00
  And I think it's that's fair only it's only fair, right, Like,
• 20:03
  I mean, as much as we're all rival fans, you know, last
• 20:07
  season, if you didn't have Arscali and also many of your team of the
• 20:11
  season. You didn't have you know, other players, you know, Kim,
• 20:15
  and then you're biased. Yeah, you're you're, you're you're exactly you
• 20:18
  know, you're not really calling a space of spades. So one thing I
• 20:21
  wanted to say is that, and I maybe want to get maybe your thoughts
• 20:23
  on on him. But for me, summer obviously was was was huge.
• 20:29
  I mean we saw him, uh, you know, play in the German
• 20:33
  league. Uh, you know, play for Switzerland. He's been huge internationally,
• 20:38
  you know, saving back in the euros uh back in the euro saving
• 20:42
  uh on the penalty against France, knocking them out. I know people are
• 20:48
  gonna say you kind of came out of nowhere, but like if you've been
• 20:51
  following international football or just culture as a whole, like he's been there,
• 20:55
  He's been pretty a pretty solid option between the between the sticks him, I
• 21:00
  mean to said he had this season replacing Onana, you know, fit right
• 21:06
  in like a glove. I said, personally, nineteen clean sheets to his
• 21:10
  name, new league, new team, new system and everything. It didn't
• 21:14
  matter. I think he was just putting the position like he knows he like
• 21:15
  he knows how. And you know, when you have a good defense in
• 21:18
  front of you. It obviously helps. But I think he's he He was
• 21:22
  a big addition for you guys. I just want to get your thoughts on
• 21:26
  Yeah, you know, obviously going from Handanovich, which was such a long
• 21:30
  serving for you guys, to you guys were so excited for Onana. He
• 21:33
  did what he did for you guys, that's fine, and then quickly turning
• 21:37
  the page to a new keeper in summer. It's not often that you know,
• 21:40
  these top teams kind of like recycled keepers like so quickly, if you
• 21:45
  know, in consecutive seasons. I just want to get your thoughts on summer,
• 21:48
  his his overall season and and uh, what's what's next round? The
• 21:52
  season was was fantastic, and I think it really comes down to when Onana
• 21:56
  left last summer. There were a lot of nerves hurting teddyste but really what
• 22:02
  was it that made in TEDISTI fall in love with Onana. The shot stopping
• 22:07
  was was brilliant, but it was the distribution, right he was pinging balls
• 22:10
  up and down the pitch and it was like this guy is he's involved in
• 22:14
  the play of the team. That is what I think in teddyst weren't expecting
• 22:18
  to see from Sommer. You mentioned, you know, seeing him on the
• 22:21
  international stage, seeing him with you know, with Bayern before he came to
• 22:23
  Eta. Always been a terrific shot stopper, always have, you know,
• 22:29
  had amazing reflexes. I don't think there was any concern there. It was
• 22:33
  more so within Zogie's team playing out the back. Is he going to be
• 22:36
  able to shoulder the load that we saw with Onana And there was barely any
• 22:41
  any downgrade, if it may have even been an upgrade. He was a
• 22:44
  little bit safer in terms of, you know, how he was distributing the
• 22:48
  ball. He could still ping ping a long ball. There was also one
• 22:52
  of the big things that stood out for me was just he is. You
• 22:56
  can see it with Onana and Manchester United. There's a sense of chaos at
• 23:00
  the back with Sommer. You know, not everybody gets excited for a thirty
• 23:06
  five year old, thirty six year old keeper to come in, but that
• 23:08
  level of calm it makes all the difference. It makes all the difference in
• 23:11
  the world, especially you're slotting in a new player in Pavart into the back.
• 23:15
  Despite all the international experience, he still you know, has to integrate
• 23:18
  into the system, and you know, it's his calmness at the back was
• 23:23
  was a huge something that just you know, had stood out to me,
• 23:27
  is calmness and his distribution. And you know, I think people also talked
• 23:30
  about his height. He's he's shorter for a goalkeeper, but incredibly athletic and
• 23:34
  there wasn't there was no saves that he wasn't able, no balls that he
• 23:40
  wasn't able to get to. Incredibly athletic keeper. So we have him here
• 23:45
  for another year at least and looking to sign you know, a young Brazilian
• 23:49
  keeper in Bento Krupski. Will see if that that ends up coming through.
• 23:53
  He's a Brazilian international. I think he's the number two or three on that
• 23:59
  team. But he's a young keeper. And it's one of those things where
• 24:00
  if you can have a seamless transition from Sohmer veteran keeper, then you can
• 24:07
  hand over the keys to the next guy for the next ten years. That's
• 24:10
  how you should do it as far as uh, you know, the goalkeeping
• 24:12
  position is concerned. So for me overall, Sohmer was not a huge surprise,
• 24:18
  but a key cog in this team that I don't think a lot of
• 24:21
  people saw saw coming. The fact that he is what thirty four to thirty
• 24:26
  five years old? I don't know exactly thirty six, I'll look that up.
• 24:30
  But do you do you think they have to you know, target,
• 24:34
  maybe a younger goalie, you know, maybe all Digo de Great, Gary
• 24:40
  g G. Yeah he's linked with you, but you don't. You never
• 24:45
  know what these things, right, There's so many happened. How many times?
• 24:49
  How many times has a player been linked with you and he goes into
• 24:52
  a player linked withintern he goes to UV. Yeah he's an example. Yeah,
• 24:56
  yeah, exactly is there another goalkeeper maybe young goalkeeper? You'd like to
• 25:03
  see him through target? It's it's for me, it is bent though.
• 25:06
  I think they've lined up the right the right kid obviously you know has not
• 25:10
  played in SEEA before, so I do think that the where does he plays
• 25:15
  for Athletic in uh in Brazil? So he is you know the That's what
• 25:23
  I'm saying about, sort of the transition where you can bring in a guy
• 25:26
  into a low pressure situation where he does get to sit and learn and watch
• 25:30
  and maybe play or maybe play you know, super kopa games where you're not
• 25:34
  really throwing him in there and learn that would be you know what I'm looking
• 25:38
  to uh to achieve with that position. But ultimately, you know, I
• 25:45
  trust my mouth. He seems to have his finger on the pulse of of
• 25:48
  how to manage different assets. Even though the offense last year once uh Lukaku
• 25:53
  decided to split on us, that was a tough end to the transfer market.
• 25:57
  But yeah, I have I have faith in in Marta, and I
• 26:00
  do I do think that bringing in a keeper of the summer is is a
• 26:03
  top priority for that management team, you know, speaking of speaking of obviously
• 26:08
  management team and and all that. Obviously, the big news after this correcto
• 26:12
  was this whole oak Tree thing. Right soon soon zig out oak Tree in
• 26:19
  weren't able to wasn't able to pay up. They came in, swooped in.
• 26:25
  You know, it's pretty pretty easily explained like that. But I just
• 26:29
  want maybe you for you kind of like maybe way out more for us in
• 26:33
  terms of maybe what we haven't seen. I mean, obviously we've seen a
• 26:37
  lot, but we want you as an intadista that kind of follows a bit
• 26:41
  more that days in and out of inte kind of what you that is this
• 26:47
  a good thing for you in your eyes, is this is this a thing
• 26:48
  that obviously changes a lot, or or just I want your overall thoughts on
• 26:53
  on this is positive negative, all that stuff. It's a really fair question
• 26:57
  and it's it's a difficult one to answer as a as a fan when you're
• 27:03
  watching it, because it is you haven't seen how these these folks operate behind
• 27:07
  the scenes. But as far as the fan sentiment, I think there's a
• 27:11
  lot of excitement because with with Jang, you know, we did a whole
• 27:17
  deep dive into this situation on on Interview's pod. But I think with Jang
• 27:21
  there was always a nervousness because you understood that this is an owner who's no
• 27:26
  longer able to invest in the club after COVID, you know, completely gutted
• 27:30
  the Chinese arm of their business. Investment was over. So it was really
• 27:34
  a question of you know, he loved the club and he showed it and
• 27:38
  he tried to be there, although this year he was not in Italy for
• 27:42
  you know a number of reasons where it's it's really unsure you know why he
• 27:47
  wasn't able to be around. But when the investment stops, you start looking
• 27:52
  at Sooning was it more of a we were winning. Were they really a
• 27:56
  positive influence on the club or was it the fact that we had a really
• 28:00
  competent management team in place that was able to navigate the handcuffs that the owners
• 28:07
  had put on the management team. And ultimately, when you look at the
• 28:10
  success of the team, you know, Sooning is gonna sit there ranked second
• 28:15
  or tied with second in terms of ownership trophies that have been brought into Indeed,
• 28:19
  but you have to give a lot of credit to to Marta and to
• 28:23
  Simona and to the players and the staff. So as far as the transition
• 28:27
  is concerned, all the reports and everything we know coming out from oak Tree
• 28:33
  is that they've now officially acquired an asset for them, right, So for
• 28:38
  them to start gutting the team completely and making all these changes to an asset
• 28:44
  that is growing in value, that is competitive on the field, that doesn't
• 28:48
  make sense. What makes more sense is not necessarily that they're going to start
• 28:51
  investing, but they're going to leave the management team in place. They're not
• 28:53
  touching that, they're not touching the coach. You know, it's the same
• 28:57
  if it was with Suoning. If a huge offer comes in for the players,
• 29:00
  you can probably expect that that player is going to get sold, but
• 29:03
  the management team is still going to do their best to keep the squad competitive.
• 29:07
  I wouldn't for INTEEDISTI out there that are on sure, I wouldn't expect
• 29:11
  additional investment. I would say, you're still looking at a player trading model
• 29:15
  where you know, one in, one out kind of situation and hoping that
• 29:19
  the competence of the management team can keep this thing afloat. But Oak Trees
• 29:25
  incentive. If you're saying, oh, they only look at us as an
• 29:29
  asset, it's not necessarily a bad thing. They need to grow the value
• 29:33
  of the asset, which means the first thing on their priority is going to
• 29:36
  be getting that new stadium in place. Once that new stadium in place,
• 29:40
  they're selling. And I know, I know there's a lot of bureaucracy when
• 29:44
  it comes to Italy when it comes to these sort of things, and we've
• 29:47
  been talking about this for years, but that's going to be their main focus.
• 29:51
  They have a much better relationship with Redbird and Milan than Jang and Sooning
• 29:56
  had, so I think there's going to be a little bit more synergy there.
• 29:59
  They're going to to be more on the same page. I overall look
• 30:03
  at this as as a positive. I know, you know, there's a
• 30:06
  lot of wariness when it comes to these American funds coming in and not really
• 30:08
  understanding the business of Italian football. I would be much more worried if they
• 30:15
  were dumping Madota and the management team. But that doesn't look like it's the
• 30:18
  case. It looks like they're you know, they're interested in continuing to grow
• 30:22
  the value of the club, and part of that is competitive put competitiveness on
• 30:26
  the on the pitch. So I'm less so worried right now, Let's see
• 30:30
  how you know this market unfold? It's the season, no, but if
• 30:34
  they're smart obviously I heard that too. You know they're not going to touch
• 30:38
  Marlta, and I think, uh, you know, in in inter world
• 30:42
  it's you know Marta Noncitoka, right, we touch Marotta. So because I
• 30:48
  think you you nailed in alex Is in terms of uh he really we saw
• 30:55
  what he was able to do at Juve. Obviously the mastermind behind a lot
• 30:57
  and I think with the into he's if he doesn't deserve a lot of the
• 31:02
  credit or all the credit, he deserves a lot of it. So you
• 31:07
  know, he's just what he's been able to do, is it's just fantastic,
• 31:11
  uh, you know, off off off the pitch obviously, but it's
• 31:15
  sometimes it feels like he works better with these restrictions, like he you know
• 31:19
  almost like the fact that you know, the creative he came from. He
• 31:22
  came from the loophole creativity of this part of the process, you know exactly.
• 31:30
  So it's it's not too he's looking one way to go into the other.
• 31:33
  There we don't we don't know, right, So, but no joking
• 31:37
  aside, guys, the proof is in the pudding, right. We can
• 31:41
  joke all we want, but the proof is there. So he has the
• 31:45
  uh, he has the trophies to back it up. So you know,
• 31:49
  and again one thing with these American companies, you know, I see it
• 31:53
  obviously on on my side of Milan, you know, with Red Bird,
• 31:56
  and you know, fans are complaining this and that at Elliott but still involved.
• 32:01
  So it's a lot to digest, I think, and I think fans
• 32:05
  just need to kind of understand that, you know, it's a business,
• 32:07
  right, Like these guys want to make money. Like at the end of
• 32:09
  the day, it's we want we're such hardcore fans that we want We're passionate
• 32:15
  about the colors, you know, the history, the players, the this
• 32:19
  that what we see on the pitch, but all the behind the scenes,
• 32:22
  you know, oak Tree wants to make money. They want to increase that
• 32:24
  value of into even more than what it already has had. So I don't
• 32:29
  know. Again, the stadium thing, me and you other side, we
• 32:32
  can go back and forth and have bang our head against the wall because we've
• 32:37
  been talking about a new stadium. I know you're on our end. I
• 32:40
  could just imagine on your end as well. So we add that together.
• 32:44
  It's basically the same. It's been an ongoing thing. I don't know if
• 32:49
  you're hopeful for that or if you're optimistic about that. I've kind of just
• 32:52
  at this rate kind of just manage my expectations about it and just kind of
• 32:57
  left it on the bid of the back burner because I don't see an immediate
• 33:00
  future with that happened. Every year we see, Yeah, in this area,
• 33:04
  Milan is gonna have They're gonna have their own stadium. Inter's gonna go
• 33:07
  here, They're gonna still share it at a new location. Yeah, you
• 33:09
  hear it all so I don't know, Sancito, I've got the chance to
• 33:15
  go absolutely beautiful, Like for me, the Cathedral of Football, it really
• 33:20
  is scala the culture, right, Yeah, so it's it's it's it's really
• 33:23
  uh historical. So I would not I would hate to see that get demolished.
• 33:30
  But at the same time, if we want to walk to to to
• 33:34
  the uvers of the world again, you know, they have their own stadium,
• 33:37
  they're they're they're they're, they're going in the right direction. So unfortunately,
• 33:39
  I don't know if it will happen in Milano anytime soon. We'll see
• 33:45
  Rome, but not even go there. It's a whole different story. But
• 33:49
  are you optimistic about it or is it something that I'm just like yeah,
• 33:52
  or am I talking out of my ass Like no, no, no,
• 33:53
  I'm becoming more optimistic about it because I think, you know, the mayor
• 33:59
  of Milan, Salah sort of at his last wits with this thing where he
• 34:01
  has tried and tried and presented all these different, uh you know, all
• 34:07
  these different proposals because obviously, you know, we talk about incentives, right
• 34:09
  incentives. Oak Tree wants to you know, increase the value whatever his incentive
• 34:15
  is that he keeps the team there so that you know, the Medlan the
• 34:17
  city continues to make money off off of that stadium. It's a different incentive
• 34:22
  for the clubs who meet that revenue on their own. And this is not
• 34:27
  it's not just you know, we're talking about clubs being greedy or you know,
• 34:30
  wanting all this money. We're talking about the future of football when we
• 34:36
  discuss these stadiums. Italian football is in dire need of this kind of renovation,
• 34:43
  this kind of innovation and upgrade exactly in order to compete. And it's
• 34:47
  amazing because our coaches are again for me, the best in the world.
• 34:52
  The teams we saw we were the first, you know, in this first
• 34:55
  new format for we're heading into for European football next season. We gained an
• 35:00
  extra spot because of how well our teams have done in Europe. Now imagine,
• 35:04
  you know, we're able to start not competing financially, but at least
• 35:07
  play play, you know, in the same playground as some of these other
• 35:12
  teams in some of these other leagues. The stadium individually Foreteter and a stadium
• 35:16
  individually for Milan is huge to get to that competitiveness level, which for you
• 35:22
  Adriano Nick for myself growing up, having seen the glory days of said,
• 35:29
  ah, there's nothing that I want more, right, you know, we
• 35:31
  don't want our stars that have to continue to get poached every single year.
• 35:35
  We want to be what Setea used to be. So it's very, very
• 35:38
  important. But ultimately, you know, I'll bring it back to this.
• 35:43
  The bureaucracy, the red tape in Italy is something that remains undefeated. It
• 35:49
  remains undefeated. So let's see how hard they go. Yeah, they really
• 35:53
  are, they really are, So let's see how hard they can push.
• 35:55
  I think it's pretty apparent to to Milan that they're not going to stay at
• 36:00
  sun Zeato. They're not interested in renovating. So at some point the damn
• 36:05
  has to break here, somebody's got a blink and hopefully it goes our club's
• 36:08
  way. It's interesting because it's what twenty thirty two, I think Italy's hosting
• 36:14
  the Euros, and that's just eight years away. I don't I think it
• 36:19
  feels like almost like deadline's coming to have a stadium built by that is because
• 36:23
  I know you could physically build build a stadium in what two years? They
• 36:28
  did it? All these new stadiums coming up in England, Spain, you
• 36:30
  know, and they could probably do it in want two years, but like
• 36:34
  you said, it's a bureaucracy, so eight years feels like you know,
• 36:37
  hey, twenty thirty two is coming up. You know, the way the
• 36:39
  way, the way the Italians work it, they need more than eight years.
• 36:43
  So we're already buying scheduled exactly. Yeah, it's true, it's true.
• 36:47
  And they they they're not going to renovate sun Zeato, so that should
• 36:51
  be you know, the first thing where you think about hosting a major international
• 36:53
  tournament. We've seen some of these teams have restrictions on you know, their
• 36:59
  ability to host games in Europe. You know, with with You've seen it
• 37:02
  with Atlanta, we've seen it with Napoli. The the state of some of
• 37:07
  these stadiums, it's it's in desperate need of some some investment. And you
• 37:10
  know what, there's some pretty powerful funds that have come into this come into
• 37:15
  this league, and their intention they're they're not you know, these are ruthless
• 37:19
  capitalists. They're not here to to mess around, right, They're they're trying
• 37:22
  to get it done. So it's it's what's best for for the League.
• 37:27
  It's what's best for these these stadiums the country exactly. These stadiums are intended
• 37:34
  to be built as sort of centers where there's a lot going on around it.
• 37:38
  So it's supposed to be something that's good for the economy of these these
• 37:45
  these cities and these clubs. So let's see how it shakes it shakes out.
• 37:47
  It's one of those things. Sorry, no, no, no,
• 37:52
  go ahead. I was just gonna say, it's one of those things where
• 37:53
  it makes sense in uh, in our heads. But you know, once
• 37:58
  the reality of the building he starts unfolding, let's see, uh, let's
• 38:01
  see how things look. He almost took the words out of my mouth because
• 38:05
  these you know, if it be the American investors, if it'd be foreign
• 38:09
  and know who is in the Indonesian Uh, that's you know, there's somebody
• 38:17
  else that has I think is it samp or is it I don't know general,
• 38:22
  I don't know what somebody else. Yeah, when these one of these
• 38:28
  clubs have you know, other form ownership, you know these these like like
• 38:32
  no love him, hate him, but comiso right for Fiorentina. He wants
• 38:36
  to spend the money. He is willing to pay the money he's he's and
• 38:39
  he has, he's, he has, he's trying to put the money in.
• 38:43
  You know, oak Tree, I'm pretty sure has a lot of money
• 38:45
  that they want to put the money. You know, Red Bird, everybody
• 38:47
  hates Cardinal, you know Elliott. They have the money, like I think,
• 38:52
  so make them spend it. They're not even able to spend their own
• 38:54
  money where they want to make these invents investments, which again we're gonna I
• 39:00
  don't want to open that kind of worms even further, but because we can
• 39:04
  have a whole separate episode on it. But for sure, you know,
• 39:06
  it's just it's just one of these things where it's it seems like it's a
• 39:09
  it's a you know, rotund very go around exactly of you know, we
• 39:15
  want to invest, We're gonna invest a bit. Now we're stuck here.
• 39:19
  We have this this thing in front of us. You know, they don't
• 39:22
  want to spend our money. The city, the bureaucracy of this. But
• 39:24
  it's it's never ending, guys. So I don't know what it's going to
• 39:28
  take because clearly there's people coming into this league making investments that want to spend
• 39:34
  the money that are still handcuffed on how they want to spend their money and
• 39:38
  how they want to increase revenue not only for the club, but for the
• 39:44
  city, for the country, you know, for for people that women,
• 39:47
  the citizens. So I don't know, it's let's move on because I think
• 39:52
  if we continue on this we can talk, we're gonna have a bit of
• 39:55
  a rund. So I don't want to go that route. But ye,
• 39:58
  Nick, I think you had something else to ask. Yeah, no,
• 40:00
  I was just going to say, you know, Cinsera hosted games in the
• 40:04
  nineteen thirty four Old Cup. It would be crazy if they also host games
• 40:07
  in the twenty thirty two Euros, so ninety years later. But yeah,
• 40:09
  you know, it remains to be seen. Uh, but you know,
• 40:13
  obviously we want to talk about this upcoming Euros soon. But a couple of
• 40:16
  questions on social media. Uh, first from your co host, Uh John
• 40:22
  Marco, who's the best Twitter troll? He is? He is all that
• 40:28
  we all know that of all time, of all time. I don't want
• 40:31
  to need big show. I don't think big show. Big show's pretty good
• 40:37
  because everyone knows he's a trolled. That's what it's like. Oh geez,
• 40:42
  he's just funny. Yeah, there's a lot of good ones that are people
• 40:45
  who are trolls but don't want to be a troll purpose and then they're just
• 40:50
  they take it to another level. But let's just say, okay, so
• 40:52
  big show and and and John Barco, Yeah, I'm gonna Jenny like our
• 40:58
  co. Who's Jenny's good a posting? Two? Yes, it's it's a
• 41:01
  lot of ship posting. But I think, uh it's good because you know,
• 41:06
  it keeps these rivalries a little, a little heated, a little fresh.
• 41:08
  Yeah, he's happily taken on the mantle. So uh. And then
• 41:17
  another question from mister Alfa Bravo, Alex, have you ever tired of talking
• 41:22
  about Are you ever afraid of talking about Sanchez? Uh, Dumfries or Micarian
• 41:27
  on interviews podcast? It's uh, it's difficult because there are some supporters of
• 41:35
  these players and some detractors of them that happened to be some of the loudest
• 41:39
  on Twitter. So anytime, anytime Dumfries is brought up on the pod,
• 41:45
  I know Johnny's about to have himself you know, some some words to say,
• 41:50
  which is always fun. It maankes for some great content. And listen,
• 41:54
  every team has their scapegoats, right, every single team has their scapegoats,
• 41:59
  so I know, uh, I know with with Milan, you know,
• 42:02
  Calabria doesn't always get get love. He's made some mistakes here. So
• 42:07
  every every team has this, I mean Nick with Casa, they get a
• 42:14
  lot of heat. So I'm sure there's always players guys are talking. You're
• 42:17
  like, should I got to talk about this guy again? So that is
• 42:22
  what it is. That was me all season on this podcast, just guys
• 42:25
  love got score, got score yeah against Frozen. He only scores against any
• 42:31
  time scores you know, in bunches with the lower end teams where when we
• 42:36
  need him, he's on there. So it makes for good conversation, good
• 42:39
  content. So it gets a couple of clips going for for social media.
• 42:44
  We'll take it. Yeah, and usually we actually didn't get we did get
• 42:49
  one meal on question. Might as well ask how lateral of a move is
• 42:53
  purely too fun teca and does the signal what the intentions are of this ownership
• 42:59
  group? Top for sal money rinserapete from Favretto. So, Adrian, I'll
• 43:04
  let you take this one away. Yeah, what do you think? Thank
• 43:07
  you? Yeah, no, thanks for the question. There, that's Derek,
• 43:09
  I believe. Yeah, it's tough man. Like I've said it on
• 43:15
  the show before. I mean, POI, well them or hate him.
• 43:21
  He was able to take us to a level and touch some silverware that we
• 43:25
  hadn't touched in a long time, you know, and we have an intergest
• 43:29
  on the show. On the show, you know kind of what Conte was
• 43:31
  able to do on the first schudetto. He was able to bring some sort
• 43:36
  of silverware and free into the touch some sort of silverware that they hadn't touched
• 43:38
  in quite some time either, right, you know, we both went through
• 43:42
  similar banter eras in similar time frames. Unfortunately, it's part of part of
• 43:50
  the history unfortunately. You know, it is what it is. So you
• 43:52
  know, we're we're hopefully out of it for good, we hope, obviously.
• 43:59
  And I think POI he did a lot for for for me on Was
• 44:01
  he perfect? I've said on the show guys, No, was he you
• 44:06
  know, dog shit? I don't think so either personally. You know,
• 44:10
  from when he first arrived and I'll tell the story again, guys, everybody
• 44:15
  knows the poet Hashtager was out before he even walked into me on elbow,
• 44:20
  he brought US Champions League semifinal Champions lea qualification pretty much every year since he
• 44:25
  got there. A school that too to his name as well and transform some
• 44:30
  players may me, guys, have you know better seasons integrated a lot of
• 44:36
  youth. This this team had a lot of uh, you know, younger
• 44:39
  players obviously with the veteran presence of you know, the yebs of the world,
• 44:43
  the Jerus, you know, cares stuff of that nature, but you
• 44:46
  know, plays in a room. I brought him Magnon, right, which
• 44:51
  was which was a thing that we didn't know what to expect. Right,
• 44:53
  So is it a lot of move because everybody said, Okay, we're going
• 45:00
  to get rid of Pyoe this season, because that's where everything kind of was
• 45:02
  leaning towards. Ultimately, it was his last match day for me, one
• 45:07
  the last match coaching Milan, Uh, you know, on Saturday. I
• 45:12
  think the farewell was was was merited. I think they did it right.
• 45:15
  He deserved it. I think, in my opinion, even though many people
• 45:20
  at the tail end of it was really getting tired of Poe. You know,
• 45:25
  I don't think fun sech I'm not to be honest with you. This
• 45:28
  fun second move for me is for right now, if I'm speaking right now
• 45:32
  today, it's a bit of a piss off because if we're going to get
• 45:37
  rid of Poe, you know, we want to go as as fans or
• 45:39
  as anybody. If you're going with a coach that brought you to a certain
• 45:45
  level, you want to now go from that certain level to the next level.
• 45:49
  Unfortunately, it didn't seem like POI was able to do that. We're
• 45:52
  gonna do that, So we're like, okay, we'll part ways now and
• 45:55
  we'll bring another manager in. You know, if fund is the choice,
• 46:01
  I don't know if it's taking us to that next level like we we we
• 46:05
  want to write you know, the contents of the world are out there that
• 46:07
  many fans are looking towards. Does that be the shock? You know,
• 46:13
  separation from him and Brighton was was something that you know, we didn't expect
• 46:16
  to happen, but you know, he's he has such ties to Milan and
• 46:21
  and and I think a lot of fans would have wanted, you know,
• 46:23
  go to go that route with Does er be not having to pay that release
• 46:25
  clause to Brighton as well? You know, getting them for a lot quote
• 46:30
  unquote cheaper in terms of fun, So is it a loter of move.
• 46:35
  We'll see ultimately, we'll see if it is fun Seca, that's number one.
• 46:38
  If it is fun Seca, and before he kicks off anything, I
• 46:44
  would say it's a lateral move. Once he proves otherwise, I guess that's
• 46:47
  what we're If it be better or worse, I guess we'll have to see.
• 46:52
  You know, right now, Uh, yeah, it's it's four quarters
• 46:57
  for a dollar, you know, maybe even seventy five to where I'm not
• 47:00
  sure because I'm not convinced by phone Secad Personally, I have some thoughts on
• 47:04
  this. As an outsider, Yeah, no, And you can jump in
• 47:07
  for yeah, your Milan will play better football with Fonsyka than they did with
• 47:14
  Poli. I think what with Poli what happened was is a cycle that we
• 47:19
  see with a lot of coaches where at first the tactics work and then you
• 47:23
  see how good of a man manager he is. But the biggest thing for
• 47:28
  Milan this year was the performance in big games where he he tried things tactically
• 47:35
  that didn't end up working. I think one of the biggest things was against
• 47:37
  Romo over the two legs. Though the tactics were not good and not good
• 47:44
  to see him get outclassed by that OSSI. I totally understand what you're saying
• 47:46
  in terms of where he brought you to the level, but I do think
• 47:50
  it was time to move on from him. And as far as Fonseca is
• 47:52
  concerned, his teams play play good football. They play good football. I
• 47:58
  don't know what he's going to look like as a man manager. That is
• 48:01
  one of Poli's strengths. But I think Milan will look more fluid next year
• 48:07
  than they did this year. That in and of itself can you know,
• 48:12
  cause confidence to raise between the team and he might end up being a good
• 48:15
  man manager. But you know a message too, is Miliste that also were
• 48:20
  interested in Conte that would have been I'm telling you, having had the experience,
• 48:24
  if he doesn't get what he wants on the market and if the results
• 48:27
  don't come that the team needs to be at a certain level for a manager
• 48:31
  like Conte. And if if that wasn't there and he didn't get the investment,
• 48:37
  man, you know that that would have not looked good for you.
• 48:40
  I understand the feeling of funseeka being a low to remove, but I think
• 48:45
  you guys will have a more aesthetically pleasing style of football next year than you
• 48:51
  did this year with Pioli. Yeah, no, I listen, I think
• 48:54
  you know we can. We can say, oh yeah, beautiful football.
• 48:57
  At the end of the day, it becomes a result. It's a result
• 48:59
  business, right, we need results to be true, you know melon our
• 49:05
  teams right on the show tonight, mean internew where they where? Where?
• 49:08
  Ultimately what do they what do they want? What do they look for to
• 49:12
  win? Right? And that's the bottom line. Beautiful football, It's great.
• 49:16
  I think one thing that Poi got stuck on was his inability to in
• 49:23
  game make adjustments in terms of if it be formation, if it be you
• 49:28
  know, some of those tactics, whatever you want to you know, wagboard
• 49:31
  as. He was really set on the four two three one right with it
• 49:37
  in the good and in the bad. It worked, it didn't work.
• 49:42
  It worked, it didn't work. It worked, it didn't work. So
• 49:44
  ultimately, I think, you know, Reas like if we're talking about obviously,
• 49:47
  like the recency bias, like yeah, okay, it wasn't it wasn't
• 49:51
  pleasant to watch. It's it's it is. That's the truth. It is
• 49:52
  where it is. So it's fun Seca gonna make things look a bit more
• 49:57
  prettier. Maybe again, are we looking for that? Ultimately, I don't
• 50:01
  think so. So and plus like, yeah, he's had good stints elsewhere,
• 50:08
  but like I don't know. For me, I have to see it.
• 50:10
  I have to see it to believe it. Will you will you bring?
• 50:15
  Will you bring a more offensive style and maybe make us more clinical in
• 50:17
  the final third, which there's some times where we're lacking. I hope so
• 50:22
  and and and and we need that because we need those big players to step
• 50:24
  up, you know, the way outs of the world and you know,
• 50:27
  pool Sitch and others. So again it's we're gonna have to wait and see.
• 50:32
  Is it Rinse Repete? What does this say about the management? Uh?
• 50:37
  You know what, I don't know what it says about the management because
• 50:38
  a couple of weeks ago it almost seemed like you were saying Stone that low
• 50:40
  Patagi was coming in, and then you know, ultimately an uproar happened on
• 50:45
  social media and it seemed like, Okay, well that thing's gonna happen anymore.
• 50:49
  So I don't know it's really point to say, you know, guys,
• 50:54
  let's let's coop this up together because I know for for Lani, Monk
• 51:00
  of the and and and you breen Rich have to work together and they have
• 51:02
  to come to a unanimous decision, and I think the dog agrees to a
• 51:08
  unanimous decision to see who the hell is gonna come in and coach me on
• 51:12
  next season and into the future. So I have a lot, I have
• 51:16
  a lot of opinions of it. So it's it's I'm not going to get
• 51:20
  into everything tonight, but first we have to see first if it is going
• 51:24
  to be fun SECA. Second, we're gonna have to see the Mercato because
• 51:29
  I think that's big because we have hosts of fill And then you know,
• 51:32
  thirdly, we're gonna have to see if it is him, how he how
• 51:37
  he does with this team, and can he match or do better to what
• 51:40
  he did for for for me on in his in his what was it four
• 51:45
  or five years? So yeah, yeah, it's it's for me, it's
• 51:50
  we'll have to wait and see. So because the money, the Champions League
• 51:53
  money will will obviously be there, uh, the top four money, obviously
• 52:00
  we have to make some investment. It's clear, you know, Julius gone,
• 52:05
  So Tom, we need a striker. That's that's that's number one.
• 52:08
  You know, I think we need you know, help in other areas as
• 52:12
  well. So it's not a perfect squad. But I think with with with
• 52:15
  you know, with the right investment, with the right plan, I think
• 52:19
  things can work out. And if it ultimately is fun seca, prove us
• 52:22
  wrong, prove us wrong, and and you know, bring me on.
• 52:28
  Just like you know, Inter wants to be out like you wants to be
• 52:30
  at these top teams and here they want to be at. Bring back you
• 52:34
  know, the winning ways and and the trophies to back it up. Uh,
• 52:38
  moving on, Alex, you're twenty twenty four, two weeks away.
• 52:43
  No, I'm pumped. Let's two weeks in a bit of way, less
• 52:46
  than three weeks away. Italy plays the first game June fifteenth. It's a
• 52:51
  Saturday against Albinia in Germany. Obviously know the history of Germany everything. But
• 52:57
  Spilt announced it's thirty and squad last week. It was on Thursday. He
• 53:02
  did it. So four players are gonna have to have to be cut from
• 53:07
  the squad, so it's not the final roster. I don't know what the
• 53:08
  deadline is for that. I'm seven seven, so they have one game I
• 53:15
  think on the fourth, and then another one on the ninth, or they
• 53:19
  play on the second. I think it's on the fourth they play. I
• 53:22
  forget exactly, but I'll name out the roster right now. Uh so uh
• 53:28
  For goalies Don Ruma, Maret, Vicario, Providel, uh uh, Defenders
• 53:32
  Darmian Di Lorenzo, Cherby, Bostoni, Di Marco, Mancini, Scalvini,
• 53:37
  Bojordano, uh Cambiaso, Belenova, Calafioti, mid Barrella, Georgino, Cristanto,
• 53:44
  Pelagrini, uh Ftesi, Ricci Fajoli, and follow Runco and then forward
• 53:49
  Quiza Alshawi, Restpior Skamaka I, Thigi Orsolini and Zecanya. So I want
• 53:54
  to ask, so, I have three part question. What do you think
• 53:58
  of the team so far? Any surprises? And who are your four players
• 54:04
  to cut? And we'll go around. We'll start with you Alex uh so
• 54:07
  three parts of that question. I feel much better seeing Scumacha's name on this
• 54:15
  on this team, because it looked looked interesting there for a second between him
• 54:19
  and Spaletti. Obviously, you know Spalletti lit a fire under him, but
• 54:22
  he's clearly as far as forwards are concerned the most talented forward that Italy has
• 54:29
  so extremely excited to see Scumach on the team. I think one of the
• 54:36
  biggest storylines that came from from this, you know, the these call ups
• 54:40
  is there was a there was an outrage about Medet over players like the gre
• 54:45
  Gregorio and Karneski who definitely merited places on the team. I think everyone you
• 54:52
  know, maybe needs to relax on that a little bit, and only because
• 54:57
  ultimately, if we're talking about merit, then that yes, you know,
• 55:00
  di Gregorio deserves to be there, but it's the third goalkeeper spot, all
• 55:06
  right, Like all things go correctly, this guy is never supposed to see
• 55:09
  the field. So when I see someone, you know, him calling up
• 55:13
  a medtle that he used to you know, coach with with Anopoli, for
• 55:16
  me, that says more that he's looking for like veteran guys that he knows
• 55:21
  he can lean on for you know, the personality and in the locker room,
• 55:24
  as opposed to, Okay, I'm gonna call up the three most talented
• 55:28
  goalkeepers we have. Ultimately, donal Uma is going to start, right,
• 55:31
  and then you have Vicatio and Providel, who I think you know, is
• 55:35
  going to make the team. Met that thing is going to get cut,
• 55:37
  so you know, it's not the end of the world. Di Gregori.
• 55:42
  I don't know why I'm in such a hard time with that name. He's
• 55:44
  going to be part of the Italy set up in the future, but we're
• 55:46
  talking about this tournament. He was never going to see the field, so
• 55:50
  it's not it's not that big of a deal. Defensively, I think it's
• 55:54
  they got it all correct. I don't think Gati needed to be a part
• 55:58
  of this team. Locatelli and Bonaventura now making the team over, you know,
• 56:05
  at least for the initial call of follow Runchu and and Rich I think
• 56:08
  is very very interesting because as far as you know, deep lying playmakers are
• 56:13
  concerned, Georgino, you're gonna have to lean on. Is he the same
• 56:16
  player that he used to be? Probably not Christante. I don't want to
• 56:20
  see back there. He's the only other one that you would put back as
• 56:22
  as a deep lying playmaker. So there was potentially a spot here for Locatelli
• 56:27
  to make the team, but he's been getting called up and then he's dropped
• 56:30
  for here. So obviously Spalletti doesn't doesn't rate his his build up ability from
• 56:37
  the back and would rather have Cristante and Georgino there and then Bonaventura. Yeah,
• 56:44
  I think it's a different profile than follow Runchu. I don't know why
• 56:46
  he was he's been brought on the team. I'm not that big of a
• 56:50
  fan of his his game. I think he's he's sort of a bulldog in
• 56:52
  the middle of the pitch and he's good at carrying the ball, but again,
• 56:57
  he's never gonna see going to see the pitch right. Is going to
• 57:00
  be the first to come off the bench to play that role. And then,
• 57:04
  as far as you know, the forwards are concerned, like I said,
• 57:06
  happy Scamaka is there for me, Zakanyi is the the odd man out.
• 57:10
  I'm not I'm not too impressed with him as far as his his season
• 57:15
  with Latsuo is concerned this year. I know he just scored a nice goal
• 57:17
  off for free kick. There's a little bit of a mistake by the goalie
• 57:21
  there as well. But for me, he's never impressed with with Italy and
• 57:24
  I don't see him playing a role for the team. I would much rather
• 57:28
  have had, you know, I'd much rather have El Shadawi or even Bonaventdua
• 57:32
  playing playing uh you know, in a role that he's he's occupying. So
• 57:37
  for me, the other interesting one is Scalvini because he can play in the
• 57:42
  midfield. Very versatile player, two footed player that you can see him play
• 57:46
  in the midfield. When I look at the list, I think, you
• 57:50
  know, Skelvini. Between Scalvini and Calafioti, one of them is one of
• 57:52
  them is going to get cut. I'd rather have Calafioti, but Scalvini's versatility
• 57:57
  is is tough there. So the four cuts I'll cut Meret, uh,
• 58:04
  Scalvini for uh no, actually probably m m Fala, Runco and Zachan that'll
• 58:12
  be my cuts. Jeez, all right, thank you. Uh So,
• 58:19
  what what's interesting about this team is very young? Only six players thirty year
• 58:23
  older and that's on the thirty man roster versus you know, back in twenty
• 58:29
  twenty one, eight players on the twenty six man roster or thirty year older.
• 58:32
  So you know, is a young team. A lot of players twenty
• 58:37
  four to twenty five years old. You know, I think the youngest is
• 58:39
  uh Scalvini at twenty, but obviously you know I'm gonna go position by position,
• 58:46
  like you know, goalie, Uh, they're gonna cut one. I
• 58:50
  think it's gonna be Vicario to get cut because sometimes when you when you bring
• 58:53
  three goalies to these seraments, you know, one of them is kind of
• 58:57
  the veteran, and that's where prodel is. He's thirty years old, he's
• 59:00
  had anything back last time out citygu you know, but you know, like
• 59:06
  I said, neither of these guys are playing like this is don A Rumas
• 59:08
  is net to lose again. Maybe I don't watch enough of Vicaido. I
• 59:13
  know he's had a good season with Tottenham, but you know, maybe it's
• 59:16
  between him and Morett. Maybe maybe prove Providela really is there as the second
• 59:22
  goalkeeper as that veteran Presidence h a lot of defenders on the list, eleven
• 59:28
  of them. Three years ago they brought nine defenders, so you could think
• 59:30
  maybe tool get cut. I think I think bell Nova is kind of the
• 59:35
  odd one out. I know he plays on the right side, but you
• 59:38
  know, there's there's you know, in terms of wing backs, there's Darmian
• 59:42
  Di Lorenzo, DeMarco, uh and Cambiezo and then California Califioldy could also play
• 59:49
  on the left side. Cambiaso, I really like him. I've really praised
• 59:52
  him this season. He's versatile. He's a guy that played even as a
• 59:55
  midfielder this season. I don't expect him to get I think he's a guy
• 1:00:00
  you want to bring off the bench, lead in games, just to bring
• 1:00:05
  that versatility. But that being said, even though I don't expect him to
• 1:00:12
  get cut, he might still be one of those fringe players, depending how
• 1:00:15
  you know, what happens in trading cap, depending what happens in the friendlies,
• 1:00:19
  maybe splat you will decide to keep Belanovo over him. I don't know.
• 1:00:22
  It's it's tough to say. In terms of center backs, I think
• 1:00:25
  all those guys deserve to be there. I think I don't know if there's
• 1:00:29
  anyone to be cut. You know, even if you look at the mids,
• 1:00:31
  they have eight mids, and I don't know if anyone of them are
• 1:00:36
  gonna get cut because you think back you'll get the roster. In twenty twenty
• 1:00:38
  one, they had nine minutes, so you know, you think, okay,
• 1:00:42
  full of runcho. He's probably right away he's that guy that probably will
• 1:00:45
  get cut. Same thing. Think Ricci's the next man up. But then
• 1:00:50
  you cut those guys, you're down to seven or six mids. You're a
• 1:00:52
  bit short in the midfield, so it'll it'll be interesting. I think they're
• 1:00:57
  only there's only gonna be one cut. Obviously, Jolie is the surprising name.
• 1:01:01
  The fact that he missed the past seven months was suspension and he made
• 1:01:05
  the team. I was really surprised. Look at Kelly, both surprised and
• 1:01:07
  not surprised. He didn't, you know, do enough the season to earn
• 1:01:12
  his spot. But at the same time, you look at these names,
• 1:01:15
  there's just not a lot of death, so you would have thought he'd just
• 1:01:19
  be there based on depth. A lot of people criticize Chrisciente, including you,
• 1:01:22
  raph. I know you don't like him. I think he's just like
• 1:01:25
  you need for depth and and he does his job well. He's just a
• 1:01:30
  role player. He's not gonna be starting. You know, he won the
• 1:01:31
  Euros. He's gonna bring that veteran presence. But yeah, that that midfield
• 1:01:37
  is interesting, and uh, you know one player I'm excited to see is
• 1:01:39
  pel Greene. He missed out on last Euros with injury. Uh missed out
• 1:01:44
  on that trophy. I must must have sucked for him, and so hopefully
• 1:01:46
  he's healthy, healthy and he and he plays in the Euros this year.
• 1:01:51
  In terms of Uh forwards, I I do like it. And like you
• 1:01:53
  said, Skamaka, getting hard at the right time, Sam, with the
• 1:01:55
  case of getting hard at the right time, that's what you want heading into
• 1:01:58
  these tournaments. I do think there's gonna be there has to be one cut.
• 1:02:02
  Who is it gonna be? It? For me, it's between el
• 1:02:05
  Chari or like you said, Zakhani. It's tough, you know. I'll
• 1:02:10
  admit I didn't watch either Lacho or a Roma enough this season to really you
• 1:02:15
  know, have an opinion on that, you know, even look at the
• 1:02:17
  other names, even the Restpiraor's McGain Orsolini like obviously Ka like those are locks,
• 1:02:22
  right, So that's why I'm saying it's between these two. I I
• 1:02:28
  do think it'll be Za Khanyuh. I do think Elchari would get cut,
• 1:02:32
  just because the Kiny brings a bit more speed, you know, and you
• 1:02:37
  know, even a bit more versatility in terms of positioning. But I wouldn't
• 1:02:42
  be surprised if el Chari Uh makes it either, you know, I forget.
• 1:02:46
  Was he on the team back in twenty fourteen in the World Cup.
• 1:02:51
  Yeah, let's say, I'll look, I'll look it up. All you
• 1:02:55
  guys talking about he was there in twenty Was he there? He was there
• 1:02:58
  in twenty six No he was. He was not included in twenty fourteen.
• 1:03:00
  Yeah, no, he wasn't. He was injury, right, Yeah he
• 1:03:06
  was, but he only made one appearance in the last game against that Ireland.
• 1:03:09
  Yeah. So you know, it's been a long time coming for him,
• 1:03:13
  so it's gonna be interesting, you know, obviously. Yeah. I
• 1:03:17
  think at the end of the biggest surprise for me is is Loca Telli.
• 1:03:22
  But other than that, there's no huge, you know, surprises. I'll
• 1:03:24
  be more interested to see the final twenty six man to see who gets cut.
• 1:03:30
  Yeah, no, I I guess Yeah, I agree with that too.
• 1:03:32
  I mean, for me keepers again, if I'll go position by position
• 1:03:37
  as well, like keepers, I personally, I think it's wild that you
• 1:03:38
  say maybe I vccaio w gonna get cut. I would have to say,
• 1:03:42
  I don't know. For me, him and Don Romar two walks for one
• 1:03:45
  two. Personally, I think Provodel will get caught. Even though I like
• 1:03:50
  him as a keeper last season had the hell of the year. This season
• 1:03:53
  obviously up and down injury. The team didn't, you know, do what
• 1:03:58
  they were probably supposed to. You know, Medet has been in the setup.
• 1:04:02
  I think I would probably longer than the other two have. And the
• 1:04:08
  familiarity with with uh Spaletti, I think he stays as that third one.
• 1:04:14
  So for me would get cut as as one of the keepers. We cut
• 1:04:18
  a different keeper, Yeah, I know, because I guess you'll see a
• 1:04:23
  different way. I don't know, Like, yeah, it's it's interesting.
• 1:04:26
  It's interesting. It is so defense. Again, it's tough. He brought
• 1:04:32
  a lot of defenders, like you guys mentioned. Honestly, it almost seems
• 1:04:36
  like I don't from the list, like I don't even want to cut anyone.
• 1:04:41
  That's it's great. Yeah, it's the strength of the team. For
• 1:04:44
  me, it's really really tough. Maybe again it's recency buys for some of
• 1:04:47
  these players, you know, the color priorities like Ambiassos, you know,
• 1:04:51
  you Sculvini, I person who breaks s Calvini a lot. I know he's
• 1:04:56
  I know he's young, but he's for me, he's he's incredible. Up
• 1:04:59
  and come and you know, center back. You know, I know you
• 1:05:03
  said Belanova, but I think like Cambiaso on the left, I think Belanova
• 1:05:10
  could be that on the right because I don't know if it's gonna like I
• 1:05:14
  think ultimately it will be Diorenzo on the right. You know, different season
• 1:05:19
  this year compared to last again him and Spoletti worked together last season was it
• 1:05:27
  was incredible, So I think he's probably gonna start the games on on on
• 1:05:32
  the right hand, flying. But like I said, like what Cambiaso can
• 1:05:35
  be to the like a DeMarco, like de Marco's the one A. You
• 1:05:41
  know, Cambio would be that one B you know, from the right side.
• 1:05:45
  For me personally, if it's gonna be a Diorenzo one A, Belanova
• 1:05:49
  could be that one that one B because they both bring Belenova and Combielo,
• 1:05:55
  I think they both bring speed, creativity, can whipping across in the this
• 1:06:00
  season had you know, incredible assists. If you're if they're gonna play that
• 1:06:08
  uh what was it the three four two one or whatever the type of formation
• 1:06:11
  squad is gonna go with, you know, if it's gonna be one of
• 1:06:14
  those variations of that and you're playing with three at the back and those wing
• 1:06:17
  backs, I think having that depth on those wing backs, because you know,
• 1:06:23
  if we looked back, you know we really depended heavily on Spinazola last
• 1:06:27
  time around, right he goes down. We were very fortunate that we only
• 1:06:31
  needed Emerson just to just to show up on the pitch, tighest cleats and
• 1:06:36
  but you know, just participate. We were lucky enough to say that that's
• 1:06:40
  all we really needed from him. We didn't need anything more, we didn't
• 1:06:42
  need anything less. So if we're gonna really go that three of the back
• 1:06:46
  and have those wing backs up and down, I think that rotation could be
• 1:06:49
  nice to have because I know DeMarco's a walk on the left. For the
• 1:06:56
  right, I think maybe it's a toss up, but ultimately I think it
• 1:06:59
  will be Lorenzo. So for me, it's really really tough to say.
• 1:07:02
  I would have to cut somebody here, because who do we have a center
• 1:07:06
  back at Chedduy Busoni, bon Giordano cal Fiori. I like, if I'm
• 1:07:11
  gonna really ghost, I'm gonna say Maccini. I'm gonna go Maccini as the
• 1:07:15
  cut. For me, I know it's probably going against the green. I
• 1:07:18
  get it. Maybe he deserves to be there. I think I just rate
• 1:07:25
  people are gonna say, hyeah, you don't you know nothing about Gulcho.
• 1:07:28
  You know me just personally, if I have to choose, I like Scoveny
• 1:07:30
  more than I like Maccini as a player. I think I'm all close sign
• 1:07:34
  that because for me, if those are the two that I would say.
• 1:07:38
  Maccini is obviously older and more experienced, but hasn't really been in an international
• 1:07:42
  setup. Scavini is young but versatile. Again hasn't been in the international setup
• 1:07:47
  all too much either. They both have as of late. I think I
• 1:07:51
  just like the versatility that Sculveny can bring more than Mancini. We know he's
• 1:07:57
  gonna be a center back, if he's gonna be one of the three.
• 1:08:00
  I know he's calmed down with his hot headed This doesn't get a red card
• 1:08:02
  every other game. But I don't know. I'm gonna. I'm gonna say
• 1:08:05
  Mancini, and I know all the rooman needs to gonna come after me.
• 1:08:08
  I understand. I'm sorry, but if I have to choose one, I'm
• 1:08:12
  gonna I'm gonna choose Maccini. You know what, It's a shame that we're
• 1:08:17
  only taking that he only chose what was it, seven eight midfielders because personally
• 1:08:24
  I would take two off, but I know that would handicap us in terms
• 1:08:28
  of having only six minfielders. So that's where it's really tough for me.
• 1:08:32
  Again, another another area where I would take off two guys. If you
• 1:08:38
  just said, okay, who would you take off? I would take off
• 1:08:39
  two guys right away, fa Joe and Fuller Room. I would take them
• 1:08:42
  out, both of them, fa Joey. I don't know personally. And
• 1:08:45
  again it's no knocked Juventus fans or Juventus, but why is he there?
• 1:08:50
  Why is it? Guy hasn't played in three hundred days before coming in,
• 1:08:54
  you know whatever, I hadn't put an over three hundred days, hasn't touched
• 1:08:59
  the field, hasn't been in the setup. I don't get it. I
• 1:09:02
  honestly, I just don't get to get the call up. Does he deserve
• 1:09:05
  it more than a look at Talley on the UVA front? Yes? No,
• 1:09:09
  yes, no. Whenever we can go back and forth, that's fine.
• 1:09:14
  I don't I just don't get it. Personally. People can say,
• 1:09:16
  explain it to me why he got called? That would be great. Let
• 1:09:19
  me know, so I would cut for Joey personally, I think because I'm
• 1:09:27
  only gonna have to pick one, because ultimately I would pick two. But
• 1:09:30
  I don't like we're gonna handicap handicapp handicap ourselves, So I'm gonna go for
• 1:09:34
  Joey out I'll keep for a runchow for that. That aggressiveness in the midfield.
• 1:09:39
  I think Richie's is a pretty solid midfield, pretty under the radar.
• 1:09:43
  I know he's he's nothing over the top, but I don't think he's he's
• 1:09:46
  terrible either. I think he does his job, you know, box the
• 1:09:48
  box. He can really, you know, find that pass. I think
• 1:09:51
  he can be that, you know, maybe back up to a Georgino and
• 1:09:56
  Christante in that mix, maybe I would. I would think I agree with
• 1:10:00
  you in terms of Bonaventuda. Would have wanted to seen Bonaventuda in this list.
• 1:10:03
  I think he deserved it after the season he had with Fiorentina, not
• 1:10:08
  ten, and I don't think he had no he didn't have ten and ten,
• 1:10:10
  but he was what six and nine, six and eight, six and
• 1:10:14
  seven had something like that. He had he had decent stats this season or
• 1:10:16
  seven and nine something like that. But I don't know. I think if
• 1:10:20
  you want to bring that veteran presence, I think he could have He could
• 1:10:24
  have done that. I think he's been through a lot in terms of just
• 1:10:28
  never being really recognized as a as a as an international player. It would
• 1:10:32
  have been nice to see him kind of get that recognition for this. It
• 1:10:36
  doesn't seem to be, so we're gonna have to kind of just deal with
• 1:10:40
  it. But I'm gonna choose for Joy for the one out and then for
• 1:10:45
  the forwards. Again, guys, it's like every position group for me,
• 1:10:48
  besides the Gobie is like it's it's it's super tough. It's super tough because
• 1:10:55
  you walk and you want to say, okay, yeah, this player's gonna
• 1:10:57
  start. We'll have this guy come off the bench. This guy's gonna start.
• 1:11:00
  We'll have this guy come off the bench. It could work, you
• 1:11:01
  know, with the different formations. You know, Paul GREENI I think is
• 1:11:04
  a midfielder, but he can play. If we're gonna play that that three
• 1:11:09
  four two one and kind of have two guys behind that, that number nine,
• 1:11:12
  Pelo Greene could fit in that that that mix. That's kind of like
• 1:11:15
  a cam if you will as A as another ten. So I don't know.
• 1:11:21
  For me, it's really really really tough. Or Selini uh RETEGIANI,
• 1:11:32
  I really don't know where to go, to be honest, I'm gonna For
• 1:11:38
  me, I think the people, the players that are on the quote unquote
• 1:11:42
  block, because I think Kiza Okay obvious, Rettegi Skamaka I think are obvious
• 1:11:50
  and I and I I love what Skamaka has been doing. I would still
• 1:11:54
  start Retegi to open the tournament and and kind of see who's hot and kind
• 1:11:59
  of work that in because both are very very talented. Skamaka in the sea
• 1:12:03
  and Rittegi. You put him in for the Azudi. He scores. This
• 1:12:06
  guy he doesn't stop scoring. So it's a really tough one. But I
• 1:12:10
  think a good problem to have. Russ Badoi, I think it's gonna stay
• 1:12:14
  for the links to Spellette. Ultimately, that's just how I see it.
• 1:12:18
  So for me, the French players, if you were looking for the attack,
• 1:12:21
  I think is our Shaaui, uh Za Kani and I. Even though
• 1:12:26
  it pains me to say, I think or Slini, just because all three
• 1:12:30
  of those haven't really been in the setup all too much as of late,
• 1:12:36
  do they merit to be there? Yes? No? Or Souleni definitely,
• 1:12:41
  I think he definitely should be there. Yeah, more too than the other
• 1:12:44
  more too, more than the more Yeah, exactly more too than the other
• 1:12:46
  ones, especially statistically and just what he was able to do for Boona this
• 1:12:49
  season. But even ol, I think he was pretty productive in in his
• 1:12:55
  in his year. So I'm gonna go again. I don't know because if
• 1:13:02
  Tegi or Seleni and Quieza or you know, I'm trying to like picture it
• 1:13:06
  out like the formation out. But for me, it's really really tough.
• 1:13:11
  I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna cut, I'm gonna cut Sakhanyi. It's for
• 1:13:18
  me, it's again it's tough because ultimately, I don't think he had a
• 1:13:23
  great season. I think there's still something to give for Takhani. I don't
• 1:13:27
  think he's totally terrible, but there's definitely something to give. But like,
• 1:13:34
  is it really merit based? I remember, you know, Spiletti was really
• 1:13:38
  like, you're gonna get called up on merit based. Some of these call
• 1:13:41
  ups, I don't know how some of them are merit based. A lot
• 1:13:44
  of them are, for sure, A lot of them are are obviously great
• 1:13:46
  players, but some of them you scratch your head and it's like it's a
• 1:13:48
  really merit based like it's four only there because he's on Monopoly. I don't
• 1:13:53
  know, like you know, he was on wont A haad Verona. But
• 1:13:57
  he's right so decent player, I think, relatively young. But again,
• 1:14:03
  ultimately I think it's it's really really tough for me on on all fronts here.
• 1:14:06
  I'm gonna go to the county as just the name off the top of
• 1:14:10
  my head now, but I think ultimately it would be between him and shout
• 1:14:14
  out. Like you said, Nick, I agree with one of those two
• 1:14:16
  are gonna have to get cut. If we're going one cut per position group
• 1:14:21
  West, there's two in the defense because he brought a lot of defenders.
• 1:14:25
  It's possible. Because see that, I think, I think, yeah,
• 1:14:28
  I think, so you have to cut four. So I think you have
• 1:14:30
  to cut four. If either you cut one per one per position group,
• 1:14:34
  or there's gonna be one of them, you're gonna have to cut two.
• 1:14:36
  Obviously it's going to be and I don't think it's going to be. I
• 1:14:41
  don't think it would be mid or forward, maybe more mid than forwards,
• 1:14:46
  but we'll see, because cal Greeney can play forward, so maybe there's two.
• 1:14:50
  I don't know. It's it's very very complicated, guys, But if
• 1:14:53
  I have to really say one per group, I would say, uh,
• 1:14:59
  Provid Mancini, uh Fa Joli and Zack Kanie for me, if I would
• 1:15:06
  have to choose to I don't know if you guys would have to. If
• 1:15:09
  you guys were to choose two in the defense, I guess it would be
• 1:15:14
  for me maybe Mancini. I think the part. And I know I know
• 1:15:20
  Darmian. I'm not a big fine that I'll be honest with you. I
• 1:15:24
  know he had a great year. But if it would be ultimately I think
• 1:15:27
  maybe Machinis Calvini maybe, But because how he's Darmiane can play on the wing
• 1:15:33
  back and he can play as a center back. So and I'm not convinced
• 1:15:36
  Cala Fiord he has his has his uh you know, spot locked either.
• 1:15:42
  You know, as much as I hate to say that he's a great player,
• 1:15:45
  he just hasn't played a lot with the national team. So does Splety
• 1:15:49
  trust him? I don't think at all. He's been with the under twenty
• 1:15:55
  ones the first Yeah, hasn't made as I think. I think one of
• 1:16:01
  the other factors for you know, who he's gonna take also comes down to
• 1:16:08
  like he's gonna want for Yeah, it's gonna either be the four three three
• 1:16:12
  or the three five to two that he's gonna want to shift in between right.
• 1:16:15
  So again like versatility. You know, part of the reason that I'm
• 1:16:18
  saying I'll shut out WE over to zach Kny is because I'll shut out WE
• 1:16:21
  plenty of times for it all other season has also put a shift in you
• 1:16:26
  know, left wing back. We've seen him, you know, play off
• 1:16:28
  top a little bit. He's got a little bit of versatility. Scalvini I
• 1:16:31
  I really like too because you can throw him in the midfield. He's also
• 1:16:34
  two footed and can play on left, center back, right center back.
• 1:16:39
  So it's kind of like, you know, for Spalletti, does he want
• 1:16:42
  to lean on what he knows tried and true, the four three three,
• 1:16:45
  or does he want to keep the options for the flexibility of like maybe this
• 1:16:49
  team is more suited to a three five to two. What would you uh,
• 1:16:56
  since one of that topic, what would you jeweling towards the term of
• 1:17:00
  formation? If if if it was up to you. I really like the
• 1:17:03
  three five two formation. I think, you know, Kisa Skamaka, you're
• 1:17:09
  putting your two most talented players up top. I think there's you know,
• 1:17:13
  potential for that duo to do to do very well. Scamaka is a little
• 1:17:17
  bit more mobile than than Vovic and it might end up being a better partner
• 1:17:21
  for Kisa, So I would do the three five two. It also allows
• 1:17:25
  you to do a midfield of Bella Grini Barela Georgino, which I think can
• 1:17:30
  be a really devastating midfielder, though we haven't seen much of it. And
• 1:17:33
  then also like I would like to be able to see BOSTONI be in the
• 1:17:38
  back, I think is very very strong. You want to play to this
• 1:17:43
  team's strengths, right, So it's kind of you know, having three in
• 1:17:47
  the back, three very talented experience, good good defenders is a plus in
• 1:17:54
  front of Dona Uma, so I don't know. I think he's gonna want
• 1:17:57
  to keep it flexible and he's gonna want to be able to change in formation
• 1:18:00
  throughout the tournament, so it'll be interesting also, you know, as far
• 1:18:04
  as selves are concerned, I was surprised not to see not surprised, but
• 1:18:09
  I would have liked to see Yonto in there because I think he's very,
• 1:18:13
  very flexible up top, and and he's performed for Italy every time we've seen
• 1:18:15
  him. Again, I'm not I'm not as z a kny guy, I
• 1:18:19
  don't you know. And he's also he's you have to keep him on the
• 1:18:24
  left like he's a left winger. That's that's what he does, right,
• 1:18:27
  He's not very versatile, and you have a lot of players that can play
• 1:18:30
  in that role, whereas Leonto can play both on the left and as one
• 1:18:33
  of the forwards. It's very interesting. It's very interesting. Versatility is going
• 1:18:39
  to be the key for these cuts. I think versatility, flexibility I think
• 1:18:43
  are huge. Nick. I know we've spoken it on the show before,
• 1:18:45
  but like seeing these players as the initial thirty men call up, like formation
• 1:18:50
  for you, like where where you leaning towards? Because I have another opinions,
• 1:18:55
  Well yeah, I have another opinion, so I want to hear yours
• 1:18:58
  first. If there's one thing, if there's one thing I've learned watching soccer
• 1:19:02
  this season, is that whatever formation you see on the graphic at the beginning
• 1:19:05
  of the game, by a minute fifteen it's already different. You know,
• 1:19:10
  maybe I watch too much with Leger, but seriously, like, yeah,
• 1:19:14
  there's so much you know, fluidity in the game these days that you know,
• 1:19:17
  it's not FIFA like you start. You can start with three five two.
• 1:19:20
  It could become a five to four to one, it could become a
• 1:19:24
  you know, obviously a five three two easy to do. But you know,
• 1:19:29
  I just want the best eleven whatever works. I I do agree.
• 1:19:32
  You know what Alex said is with the three five two, at least having
• 1:19:36
  two strikers I can play off each other works. But you can also the
• 1:19:40
  four four two. But a four four two is kind of boring, you
• 1:19:43
  know. But that maybe if you have a three five two and you have
• 1:19:45
  a guy like like cambiazo on, you know, that's where that versatility come
• 1:19:48
  in, even Califiordy or maybe maybe even Belenova, even Darmian. You know.
• 1:19:54
  So I think I think Italy will have a pretty fluid formation, honestly.
• 1:20:00
  But yeah, he plays on the right of a four to three three
• 1:20:02
  because out of the is gone. He didn't call up Plano either. He
• 1:20:08
  would have to. You can you'll you'll play on the right side. Yeah,
• 1:20:12
  it would have to be on Salini. But again, he's not been
• 1:20:14
  involved in the national team setup. So is is you know, Spalletti gonna
• 1:20:17
  trust him to be one of the first guys on the eleven. I don't
• 1:20:23
  see that happening either. So that's why I'm feeling like this is gonna lead.
• 1:20:26
  That's one of the reasons why I'm feeling like this is going to lean
• 1:20:29
  towards the three five too, because you know that right that right winger position,
• 1:20:33
  it's not guys that we've seen play a lot for for Spalat and for
• 1:20:36
  the Italy setup. So what I would say in terms of formation I've been
• 1:20:42
  really a fan of because I know they tried it, and I know it
• 1:20:45
  was one of the formations that he kind of played around with, but uh
• 1:20:48
  instead of the three five to two because ultimately I don't think, you know,
• 1:20:55
  he has a gets Maybe it's at UV, so it's a different story
• 1:20:59
  in internet with the national team is different. But like Kieza in a two
• 1:21:03
  in a two man uh forward set up, I don't think for him personally
• 1:21:09
  works. He's not a striker. I don't see that. Yes, he
• 1:21:11
  can play off of that the other player with him and maybe and maybe Skamak
• 1:21:16
  or maybe we're Teki are better than better to play off again, play off
• 1:21:20
  of than Volvich. Maybe that is the case. I don't know, but
• 1:21:25
  I don't see or a person I don't like Kieza where he's not the most
• 1:21:30
  productive. I think I'm a fan of this whole three four two one formation.
• 1:21:34
  Just tweak it a bit, not make it the five, make it
• 1:21:38
  a fourth and then kind of have, like I said earlier, those two
• 1:21:40
  behind the striker that are very free roaming, because we have a lot of
• 1:21:44
  those players that are very creative, free roaming, and I think Kisa would
• 1:21:46
  be better off there on on either side. Really, So if you have
• 1:21:50
  let's say Skamaka as the nine, and then you have you know on the
• 1:21:56
  left or the right, and then you have it if if you're Sealini,
• 1:21:59
  if it be Raspadori, if it be Pellegrini. I think that for me
• 1:22:04
  is a bit is a bit better because those players are very creative. I
• 1:22:09
  know Kis likes to kind of you know, roam a bit, and you
• 1:22:15
  know, take on the man, make that run, take that shot,
• 1:22:16
  make that pass when he's isolated up top with somebody else. It's kind of
• 1:22:21
  at least what we've seen under you are juve. It doesn't really in my
• 1:22:27
  personal personal opinion, doesn't really suit him. So I would lean towards that
• 1:22:30
  three four two one, play him behind either Ritegi or Ascamaca, and then
• 1:22:35
  whoever else you want to partner with that I think what would work like a
• 1:22:41
  lot better in my opinion, those wing backs are are I think if it
• 1:22:46
  stays the way it is in terms of how I see it, you know,
• 1:22:50
  the de Marco, Cambiaso and then the Lorenzo and Bellnova. For me,
• 1:22:56
  those are those are positions that are very very crucial in this formation,
• 1:23:00
  if it's to be three five two, if it'd be three four two one,
• 1:23:03
  just because those guys are going to be going up and down and they're
• 1:23:06
  gonna be so crucial to this formation, and they're very productive offensively as well.
• 1:23:12
  So I'm curious to see in the midfield. I think it's I think
• 1:23:16
  it's the obvious ones are Barella and Georgino. I think those are going to
• 1:23:21
  ultimately be the ones that he leans on, you know, Palleer, Greeni,
• 1:23:27
  Cristante FLTSI I like also coming off the bench. If he was able
• 1:23:32
  to do it, at into. I'm pretty sure he could do it for
• 1:23:33
  the Azui off the bench as well. So that's where I kind of see
• 1:23:38
  it in terms of the setup. I'm hopeful that that's kind of what he
• 1:23:41
  sticks with. But again, I think if there's one thing about Spoetti,
• 1:23:45
  I think he's able to adapt better than other managers. So if one thing
• 1:23:48
  is not working, I think you'll have enough enough know how enough bring power
• 1:23:53
  to kind of, like you guys said, be food and kind of work
• 1:23:57
  with that formation and maybe turn it into a two, maybe turn it into
• 1:24:00
  a different formation, you know, as the game goes on, halftime,
• 1:24:04
  change whatever it may be. So it's part of what's interesting there is also
• 1:24:12
  depending on the formation, some of your best players are not going to be
• 1:24:16
  in the ideal position for them, right because if it's let's say three five
• 1:24:19
  two, you know, Yessa not the ideal position for Kissa. That might
• 1:24:26
  That's how I know, but I you know, I agree with that.
• 1:24:28
  And then if we look at four three three, who's going to be You're
• 1:24:31
  you're taken away from like one of your best players, Di Marco. You're
• 1:24:33
  taking him out of that left wing back and have to push further deep so
• 1:24:38
  it's it's interesting. It's like, you know, what's how are we going
• 1:24:42
  to get the most out of out of these uh, these players, you
• 1:24:46
  know, and and a two man midfield, Like what is your strongest two
• 1:24:50
  because Butela Georgino, if it's ends up being a two man midfield and a
• 1:24:54
  three four two one, I don't know if that's sort of you know,
• 1:24:59
  compact. They're tough enough for some of the midfields that we're going to be
• 1:25:02
  coming up again. It's it's all just sort of like it doesn't feel like
• 1:25:06
  we haven't established the eleven. It feels very up in the air. It
• 1:25:11
  feels very situational where you know, the key for this tournament, it really
• 1:25:16
  is Spalletti, like he's gotta the only way we do well is he has
• 1:25:20
  to get this right. There's talent on the team. It's obviously not what
• 1:25:25
  we've been used to, but there's talent on the team, and he's gotta
• 1:25:29
  he's gotta make the right decisions here because there's a lot of a lot of
• 1:25:31
  different ways that he can go where we can see success or where we can
• 1:25:35
  see some not not good football. And another interesting thing is that you know,
• 1:25:43
  uh, a lot of these guys, this is gonna be their first
• 1:25:45
  international tournament with Italy. You know, ten ten players that were on the
• 1:25:50
  Euro team at least out of this provisional thirty plus d'armienne who actually played in
• 1:25:56
  the World Cup. Who's the only he's the only eye on this list who's
• 1:25:59
  played in a World Cup and he was also in the year twenty sixteen team.
• 1:26:03
  But so that you know, it's gonna be interesting. I don't think
• 1:26:05
  it's a big deal because even if you look back and you know twenty twenty
• 1:26:10
  one, uh and probably about the same amount of players had played in in
• 1:26:15
  at least multiple years and a World Cup before. But that'll that you know
• 1:26:20
  again that that's just the trade off of having a young team. But Alex,
• 1:26:24
  we appreciate you having on having you on. Wait, wait one last
• 1:26:28
  thing before we let him go. I don't know if we'll speak to you
• 1:26:31
  before the tournament kicks off. Yeah, what's the ideal finished for it?
• 1:26:38
  I mean, obviously to win the thing, we get it. To defend
• 1:26:41
  the defending champions, I get that. But in your in your honest,
• 1:26:45
  humble opinion, uh, where does Italy where where are you satisfied Italy finishing
• 1:26:50
  besides obviously winning the whole thing. I have high hopes of this team.
• 1:26:55
  I know a lot of a lot of fans are are down on it because
• 1:26:59
  it's not the quality that we've seen. There's obviously been an upheaval. You
• 1:27:02
  know, Mangini is gone now in Spalati's in here. But I've you know,
• 1:27:06
  I think I've said it multiple times on this podcast. I really really
• 1:27:11
  believe in Italian coaching. I really really believe in in Spaletti. And this
• 1:27:16
  is He's talked about it a lot. This is his dream, dream job.
• 1:27:21
  And when I look at, you know, some of the other coaches
• 1:27:24
  on the international level, it's not like the club level there are He's got
• 1:27:28
  an advantage in terms of coaching with a lot of teams that are in this
• 1:27:31
  UH In this tournament, I'll go semi final. I know it's not what
• 1:27:36
  a lot of people are expecting out of Italy, but I really believe that,
• 1:27:41
  you know, this this staff, they should be able to do well
• 1:27:45
  against their their competition. From a coaching perspective, I do believe in uh
• 1:27:49
  In Spaletti. I think we have no choice in in in Spaetti. We
• 1:27:54
  trust, right, So it's kind of have to kind of be like that
• 1:27:57
  and listen, I think it's a it's obviously a bold prediction, but that's
• 1:28:01
  why we do them. And but again I could also see that happening,
• 1:28:05
  right, So what I've also just liked again before we let you go here,
• 1:28:11
  Alex, just what's bought is brought into the players' attention to say,
• 1:28:16
  like, I'm not here to motivate you guys your points for the Italian national
• 1:28:19
  team. Right, He's really made it clear how much this shirt weighs and
• 1:28:24
  what the significance it is to to wear the Adjuri blue for freely for these
• 1:28:28
  players, and he really is taking it to a human level and really make
• 1:28:32
  it make it known that like this is like important, like it's not only
• 1:28:38
  for us, it's for you know. He's really spoken to Italians, not
• 1:28:43
  only in Italy, but for for ones abroad like ourselves that come from Italian
• 1:28:47
  descent. And he's really touched you know, all four corners of the globe
• 1:28:51
  where because everywhere everywhere in the world there's there's there's Italians. So he's really
• 1:28:57
  touched to to these different markets and these different and heart strings for Italians all
• 1:29:01
  over the world. So that's another touch I think has been really special with
• 1:29:04
  Spalletti so far. And hopefully those those words and those and those and those
• 1:29:10
  thoughts and those emotions can translate to obviously performances on the pitch. So yeah,
• 1:29:15
  listen, we're hopeful. Semi final, let's hope, and maybe even
• 1:29:18
  the final. You never know. Listen, we saved Europe from having to
• 1:29:23
  see an England team win the Euros. Let's see, say if we can
• 1:29:27
  do it again, because we should get a second trophy just for that.
• 1:29:30
  If it comes down to it, I know all of Europe will be rooting
• 1:29:32
  for us again, so we'll see. Yeah, we're we're we're hopeful.
• 1:29:36
  But yeah, like Nick was saying, I thought, we're we just can't
• 1:29:41
  thank you enough for your time tonight. I know we probably went over a
• 1:29:44
  bit more than we should have, but we really really do appreciate your time.
• 1:29:46
  It's not your first cap on the show, so you know how it
• 1:29:49
  goes sometimes, but again, we appreciate your time. Just before we let
• 1:29:54
  you go, just anything you want to plug obviously, you guys run up
• 1:29:57
  a great podcast plug away my friend and the four is yours. Yeah,
• 1:30:00
  so you guys can find the Interviews podcast. If you want to hear more
• 1:30:04
  about the season that In has had, if you want to know more about
• 1:30:08
  this tuning oak Tree discussion, you can find us at Interviews Underscore p zero
• 1:30:15
  D on Twitter, you'll see the link to all of our We're available on
• 1:30:19
  all podcast platforms, So would love if you guys could listen. I can't
• 1:30:24
  thank you guys enough. This is, you know, one of my favorite
• 1:30:27
  pods and I really appreciate you guys having me on. And it was awesome
• 1:30:30
  to talk about the Euros a little bit because obviously I talk about there all
• 1:30:34
  the time, so it was good to get a little discussion there. So
• 1:30:38
  I appreciate you guys having me on, and we appreciate you. The quessures
• 1:30:42
  are ours the compliment that we appreciate it, and I know I know Johnny's
• 1:30:46
  going to be here tonight, but he sends his his thanks in his regards
• 1:30:50
  as well. But yeah, guys, we've had both now Alessandro and Jim
• 1:30:57
  Marco a couple of times now on the show. Forget who they support in
• 1:31:02
  terms of teams, but just great dudes behind behind behind the microphone, right,
• 1:31:08
  So definitely guys will give interviews pot listen, a follow, a subscription,
• 1:31:14
  whatever it needs to be. Kind of go do it for them,
• 1:31:16
  because, like I said, it's two great guys running it, so,
• 1:31:21
  uh you know, we've been supporters of they've been supporters of us for a
• 1:31:25
  long time and and vice versas. So definitely, guys, go give them
• 1:31:29
  a follow for us. Like we say every week, guys, follow us
• 1:31:30
  at the Culture Guys on All socials, audio version of the podcast on all
• 1:31:35
  your favorite podcasting platforms, so everywhere you find a podcast, you can find
• 1:31:39
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• 1:31:44
  good stuff, and lastly, for all the video content of the show,
• 1:31:47
  subscribe on YouTube, post notifications, comment there, like it, share all
• 1:31:53
  that good stuff again and uh yeah, we'll back next week to talk about
• 1:31:56
  more culture. Thanks for listening and for Chock Porthasuri