Arsecast Extra Episode 700 - 22.06.2026

0:00Andrew Allen: 33 days, 33 episodes, no off switch. From the goals and the glory to the politics and the problems of the World Cup, if you want soccer analysis from a podcast that's been over-analyzing the game for more than 20 years, then this is it. Join me, Max Rushton, and our expert team of soccer journalists every day of the tournament. Can England end 60 years of hurt, or will this be another year of falling just short? Probably. World Cup Daily, listen wherever you get your podcasts, or watch full episodes on YouTube.

0:41James McNicholas: Hello and welcome to another Arsecast Extra, as always, with James from GunnerBlog. James, good morning to you from Good Afternoon here.

0:48Andrew Allen: Oh, thank you very much, Andrew, and for laying out that time difference so beautifully. I do get confused. I frequently catch myself Googling time in UK. to try and ascertain whether it's appropriate to call my family or not.

1:03James McNicholas: Yeah, it does get a bit weird, but you just need to add where you're a Chicagoist. So add six.

1:09Andrew Allen: Yeah, but once it goes past 12, I lose track. Do you know what I mean? Like the midday shift. It goes back to one. It goes back to one. It goes back to one. I'm a decimal guy, Andrew. I can't get my head around that.

1:20James McNicholas: Are you a 24-hour clock guy? Like on your phone is your... What a good question.

1:27Andrew Allen: Yeah, I am a 24-hour clock guy, so I guess I've got no excuse. I feel like 12 hour clock is bigger here in America. That's one of my observations. Whenever I say like a 24 hour clock time, people look at me like I'm in the army.

1:43James McNicholas: But you never tell the time. If someone asks you the time, you never say it's 1513.

1:50Andrew Allen: I do. 1738, sir! Like that. That's how I say it.

1:55James McNicholas: Is that how you do it? Okay. Fair enough. No wonder people are looking at you askance. Are you in a heatwave in Dublin? We're not in a heatwave per se. I know that there's going to be a heatwave in London. Yeah, there's a lot of talk about that. Yeah, I think everyone is, from what I hear, everyone's going to die in this heatwave.

2:14Andrew Allen: I heard that's why the Prime Minister resigned, because there's no air con in number 10. Right. And he was like, I'm sick of this. Fuck this shit. Yeah, he's like, I've got to wear a suit, and there's no air con. get me out of here.

2:30James McNicholas: Well, listen, you know, it's not, we're not getting the sort of crazy heat that there's going to be in London because here it's going to be like 40 degrees maybe. I saw, I think I saw that earlier. So that's very, very hot. That's too hot for London for sure. I've been in 40 degrees in Bilbao and it wasn't, it didn't feel like 40 degrees, but I wouldn't like to do 40 degrees in, in London. It's just, you know, it has a very particular heat, London. It's terrible. It's terrible. It's not designed for it. We are getting some good weather, though. I mean, it's 22 degrees right now. And tomorrow in Dublin, getting up as far as 27 degrees feels like 28 degrees.

3:13James McNicholas: So that for here now, that's as good as it gets, really. So I'm going to try and make the most of it this week and spend some time outside. What about Chicago?

3:23Andrew Allen: Okay. Problem is here, when people tell me the weather here, never mind 24-hour clock. Fahrenheit! Yeah. Which, I don't know how you get it. Double it? I think you double it. That's how I work it out.

3:37James McNicholas: Double it and add 30 gives you the ballpark figure of Celsius to Fahrenheit. Right.

3:44Andrew Allen: Okay.

3:44James McNicholas: So, you know, 22 Celsius if you double that, 44, 74 thereabouts. I think it's around that, you know?

3:51Andrew Allen: So, yeah, it's like 21, 22 degrees here. It's very mild here comparatively.

3:56James McNicholas: Right. But it's early in the day, so maybe it'll pick up.

4:01Andrew Allen: Maybe. But, you know, listen, I'm happy that it's mild. I'm happy that it's mild. I've got to just jump in quickly and say, because a lot of people have messaged me, I haven't had the deep dish pizza yet.

4:15James McNicholas: Okay, okay.

4:15Andrew Allen: I know a lot of people are waiting for my review. If you want to know what happened, Carl Anker went for deep dish pizza without me. It was a difficult moment in our relationship. Don't look back in anger, James.

4:35Andrew Allen: Did he just ditch you? Did he?

4:37James McNicholas: I mean, literally.

4:38Andrew Allen: No, no, no. It was kind of like, I don't think he knew how important it was to me. Okay. You know what I mean? It wasn't cruel. It wasn't callous. He just sent me a picture of himself, of him at the deep dish pizza place. and I immediately burst into tears. And, you know, we had a heart-to-heart about it. We've moved on. We've moved forward. But I've not taken myself yet. So that's still to be ticked off.

5:06James McNicholas: Okay. Okay. Well, this is good. You're teasing it out. You know, you're going to be there for another couple of weeks anyway. So, you know, you don't want to give them all the good content this early in the summer, you know, we'll tease this out until such point as it becomes a massive anti-climax when you do have it the problem is yeah i mean everyone local is like

5:25Andrew Allen: the deep dish thing is a myth you should have the thin crust pizza that's what it's all about um but you know i've promised the listeners like a review of the deep dish so it will happen but of course having not done it andrew we have no choice but to talk about football okay well

5:45James McNicholas: Well, there we go. Listen, we have a history of food reviews on this podcast. By the way, this is episode number 700. Nice round number. Yeah, 700. But I do remember, was it you or me? I think it was me because I'd never eaten Nando's and I went to Nando's and we did a review of Nando's on one of the episodes.

6:10Andrew Allen: I mean, Andrew, I haven't been on all the podcasts.

6:13James McNicholas: That's true.

6:13Andrew Allen: But it's roughly 40 days of talking.

6:20James McNicholas: Is that all? Feels like more.

6:23Andrew Allen: 700 podcasts times an hour and a half, roughly. It's about 1 ,000 hours.

6:30James McNicholas: Okay. What's that in 24-hour clock?

6:34Andrew Allen: 24 ,000 hours.

6:37James McNicholas: That's six decades of something. Yeah.

6:43Andrew Allen: I got served a video. I don't know what platform I was on. One of the bad ones, I would say. And it was this guy arguing with the idea that one times one is one. He was like, you're living a lie, man. What does multiplication mean? To multiply. So you're telling me one multiplied by one is just one? Come on, man.

7:14James McNicholas: that's what they want you to think take the red pill yeah exactly he's getting it in the neck from

7:20Andrew Allen: big two yeah he he had a lot of views this guy and i was like the world is fucked the world is really fucked uh but anyway 40 odd days give or take we've we've been on this podcast there you go thankfully it's been spread out rather than like you know jesus's didn't jesus do 40 days and nights in the the desert pretty much yeah i don't know what point he was trying to make he was i think

7:50James McNicholas: it was about arsenal winning the premier league i think so he was gone one day there'll be this thing called podcasts and lo they did podcast for 40 days and 40 nights and in the end arsenal did win the Premier League. Yes, I remember that bit. That bit was good. I'm still enjoying that bit, I have to say. And lo, it was good.

8:11Andrew Allen: It was good. What about, Andrew, Arsenal Football Club? Is there anything to say about them? I don't think so. Not if you're not interested in Jeremy Monger.

8:28James McNicholas: Yeah.

8:28Andrew Allen: If you like Jeremy Monger, we've got some stuff for you.

8:32James McNicholas: Well, you know, I'm just looking back on Arseblog News just to see what's been going on. And, you know, we're lucky, we're blessed in that we're not obliged to post anything. We don't have advertising on the site, so we're not dependent on advertising revenue. So we don't have to post and we don't have to do it that way. So the only time we post anything is when something is happening or something is, you know, worth talking about. and um yeah we last time we posted something was the 19th of june which was on friday which was when the new fixtures came out that is about the most recent news that there is pertaining to arsenal football club that isn't some kind of i don't know bullshit transfer stuff you know

9:22Andrew Allen: yeah i mean that is actual news because they're actual football matches that that we will have to play. Any big, hot, spicy takes on the fixture list?

9:36James McNicholas: I mean, the Friday night, what do you make of a Friday night start? The champions at home on a Friday night against newly promoted Coventry City. I still have some scars from 1993, I think it was, when we played Coventry on the opening day. and Mickey Quinn, a guy who looked like he failed an audition for Brookside, scored a hat-trick at Highbury and we lost 3-0. But maybe enough time has passed for that not to be relevant to this particular... Frank Lampard's Coventry City as well. Yeah, yeah. I quite like that. Yeah. Do you think Jamie Carer and Gary Neville will be itching to do a dance on the sidelines?

10:22James McNicholas: Yeah, I'm sure they will.

10:23Andrew Allen: But we're the home team, so what are they going to be? Singing North London forever? I doubt it.

10:30James McNicholas: Yeah, Gary Neville can wear his Arsenal shirt that Josh Kroenke gave him, you know. That's true.

10:34Andrew Allen: That would be nice. I quite like opening against a newly promoted team. It feels fresh, doesn't it? Yeah. I also think it's potentially, you know, a very winnable, a former club for Victor Jokeres as well, by the way. Oh, yeah. but potentially a very winnable opener ahead of what I think is a slightly tricky start. I think the next four league games after that could have been kinder, I would say. Yes. Because we go to Villa Park, which I feel like we always do early on these days. Except last season we didn't.

11:10James McNicholas: It was in December.

11:11Andrew Allen: No, but apart from that, always. Yeah, apart from that, always. Then we host Chelsea. God knows what Chelsea will be, but that's a big game. And then two away trips to Sunderland and Brighton, which I think are challenging stadiums to visit. So, yeah, I think the Coventry is a good sort of starter ahead of some slightly trickier ones.

11:39James McNicholas: Yeah, yeah. I mean, listen, you've got to factor in the cup competitions competitions and the European competitions as well to really get a full sort of understanding of how this schedule is going to play out. But look, it is interesting to consider, isn't it? Because I think, you know, yeah, home game to start, that's nice. But as you say, there's some tricky ones following that. And then of course, we are dealing with that very particular thing of a World Cup summer and many of our players being away and also quite a few of them dealing with injury. Did you read Declan Rice talking about the injuries that he's been dealing with?

12:24Andrew Allen: Neural pain.

12:25James McNicholas: Yeah, neural pain. I don't like the sound of that. That's more than regular pain, you know?

12:32Andrew Allen: Yes, exactly. It tends to be longer term and more persistent. Yes. And he's not the only one, by the way. Saka obviously has just rejoined full England training. Odegaard has been talking about, I think, pain in his knee across the season. So there's a number of Arsenal players. Saliba?

12:57James McNicholas: Saliba is dealing with a chronic back issue? Don't say chronic. That made my heart hurt. I don't like that word at all, especially with regards to William Saliba. Just, you know, ongoing, please. Correct. Ongoing, okay.

13:13Andrew Allen: I think in medical terms, doctors say things are chronic if they're like more than six to eight weeks. So there you go. It doesn't have to be too scary. But I think, yeah, there's like a number of Arsenal players who clearly have been dealing with issues. And I think it raises some very interesting questions about quite how much rest we're able to give them when they finish this World Cup.

13:36James McNicholas: That's right. Declan Rice said something along the lines of, yeah, you know, you've got the pain, but you play through it. And Saliba was like, yeah, I'm playing through pain, but then that doesn't make me special or anything. Lots of players are playing through pain, and that's something that they have to deal with. But Rice was like, you know, you've got to push through it. You get to the Champions League final. you win the Premier League so it's worth it and then you know you're going to the World Cup and then at the end we'll get a rest and you're like will you though? Like genuinely will you get a rest?

14:09James McNicholas: Because if England go to semi-finals or the final you know it's barely a month until the new season starts you are going to need some holidays you are going to need you know some rest but like it's tough for managers you know it is tough and obviously very tough for the players themselves to push themselves that hard. I always feel like, and I could be completely wrong here, but I'm sure everybody's done this to some extent or another, but do you ever go through like a really busy period in your life and then afterwards, like you've got a big project or you've got something to finish, you've got a deadline, whatever it is, and you work harder and you work later and you do all that stuff, and then at the end of it, you kind of have this crash, right?

14:59Andrew Allen: Yes, I mean, you kind of just experienced one of those. That's true.

15:02James McNicholas: Not to make it too personal. That is true, yeah. So I do wonder if for the players, even with the best intentions, to get to the end of this season, get to the end of the World Cup and say, right, I'll have a two-week break and then I'll be ready to go get back to pre-season training. They might have to deal with stuff that is a little bit out of their control. where they might actually need more rest than is feasible because of the schedule and because of the demands of the modern game for the very, very top players.

15:36Andrew Allen: I think that's right. And I think, I kind of hope that the Arsenal lineup for that game against Coventry has a bit of an unfamiliar look to it. I think some of these players will desperately need that rest, not necessarily your Mikel Marinos or your Kai Havertz, you know, who are sort of still working their way back from relatively long layoffs, but people like Declan Rice, Bukai Saka, William Saliba, who knows, maybe Gabriel, if Brazil can kind of get their act together. I really hope they're given a substantial layoff. I think it's really impressive and creditable, their willingness to play through the pain.

16:20Andrew Allen: and it's understandable that they would do so when there was quite so much at stake for Arsenal in that running. But I think that they have to look at the bigger picture here and think we need to make sure we are available at the business end of the season again. And if we get this return to action wrong, if we don't have a sufficient layoff, if we don't get enough rest, you know we run the risk of having a really really tough season next year which could be peppered with further injuries I mean there's a degree to which I think that is just unavoidable Andrew I think that we will see the repercussions of this extraordinarily long season wrought across the Premier League next season but I think it's obviously incumbent on Arsenal to do as much as they can to mitigate against that Yeah.

17:16Andrew Allen: We've got a new club doctor coming in and some new physios, and that will be their remit.

17:22James McNicholas: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it has to be part of the way the club are planning the summer, right? In terms of how they're going to build a squad and who's going to be available for those opening weeks of the season. Because, you know, it can't be a surprise that some of the teams that our players are involved in, you know, could go far in this particular tournament. So, yeah, tricky one, a tricky one. But apart from that, there really doesn't seem to be much happening from an Arsenal point of view. So I guess we should talk about some World Cup stuff, right? Yeah, why not? Cape Verde, do it again. Wow.

18:04James McNicholas: Wow.

18:04Andrew Allen: Yeah, that was pretty extraordinary.

18:07James McNicholas: That's crazy. I mean, it was on overnight, so I didn't see it. And I'd obviously seen what had happened with Curaçao the previous night where they got a draw. Their goalkeeper made 15 saves in the game, which is apparently equaling a record. Tim Howard has the record, but he made 16 saves. But that game went to extra time, I think.

18:32Andrew Allen: That's right.

18:32James McNicholas: But, I mean, go on.

18:35Andrew Allen: I was going to say, yes, it's the normal time record.

18:38James McNicholas: The normal time, or at least equal that normal time record, I think. But what an amazing result for Curaçao, who drew against, you should know this, you're the World Cup guy.

18:50Andrew Allen: Uruguay. No. No, sorry, that was Cape Verde. I do sometimes get the smaller nations confused. Curaçao drew against Ecuador.

18:59James McNicholas: Ecuador. Piero Incapio is Ecuador, indeed. I mean that's a huge result and I was sort of thinking wow imagine if Cape Verde could go and do something again you didn't really expect them to be able to do it after what they did against Spain you're thinking that is just remarkable that's an incredible achievement for a tiny nation to hold Spain to a 0-0 draw then they score first against Uruguay go 2-1 down and then find a goal. Well, a bit of help from the Uruguayan goalkeeper who went a bit Fabianski, I think you might say. He did go AWOL.

19:42Andrew Allen: It was still a very nice finish, I think. And their first goal, again, I think the keeper might be a bit disappointed, but it's like a 35-yard free kick. So, yeah, that's a brilliant result for them. and Curacao obviously getting their point against Ecuador. There's been some nice, I mean, upset is maybe too strong, but certainly some very creditable draws by some of the supposed World Cup minos. Yeah. Even Iran holding Belgium yesterday.

20:14James McNicholas: Yeah, yeah, yeah. By the way, there's Cape Verde flags all over here. Oh, really? Yeah, because we've got a Dublin guy playing for Cape Verde. You know the story. Oh, yeah, yeah. I'm sure that the LinkedIn thing, which we talked about on the last Arsecast, but he's from just down the road here in Dublin. There's like big Cape Verde flags down the road over in the park. There's a football club called Lourdes Celtic. I think maybe he played for them when he was a kid or something because he grew up around here. They've got a big Cape Verde flag hanging up the front of the clubhouse there. So I think, you know, by virtue of, well, default, I guess, many Irish people are adopting Cape Verde as their World Cup team, at which point it'll probably all go wrong.

20:58James McNicholas: But there you go. It's fun while it's happening. That's good. Yeah.

21:02Andrew Allen: I keep thinking I'm seeing, like every bar has got the sort of flag bunting for the World Cup.

21:09James McNicholas: Yeah.

21:10Andrew Allen: And I keep thinking Ireland are in the World Cup because when you see the Cote d 'Ivoire flag hung, you can't tell which way round it is. And you're like, ah, Ireland. Yes, but not. But not. But, you know, they are flying the flag. They are indeed. For your nation.

21:29James McNicholas: Orange, white and green as opposed to green, white and orange. So, yeah.

21:32Andrew Allen: Indeed, yeah. I mean, they were very cruelly beaten late on against Turkey. I think last time I was on, I was talking about how the German public kind of have been calling for Undav to get some minutes. And he came on to score twice to turn it around for Germany against Ivory Coast. Late winner.

21:56James McNicholas: Oh, yes.

21:57Andrew Allen: I know what I wanted to ask you. I was curious about your opinion on the Almiron sending off for Paraguay.

22:06James McNicholas: Well, it's provided one of my favourite moments of the World Cup so far, when the referee went over to have a look and then delivered his verdict. And this is how it came out.

22:22Andrew Allen: After review, number 10, far away, cover his mouth, decision is red gun.

22:28James McNicholas: I fucking love that, man. You know me, I'm not big on the idea that referees should be announcing their decisions. you know i think it's a bit razzmatazz i think that guy should though but that's all the decisions that's what i'm saying if we could just get that guy to do all of them he reminds me do you remember there was like a like a cartoon back in the early days of the internet i think the dude was called strong bad and he just sounds a little bit like that red card um yeah it's really good so i love that sort of delivery of the verdict. Of the incident itself, I've seen quite a bit of discussion about this and people saying, well, it's a bit harsh to get sent off for that.

23:14James McNicholas: But what I think is clear is that this rule was put in place before the World Cup. Did it have to do with the guy... Was it Vinicius Jr that he said something too earlier in the season. I can't remember the guy's name. I don't know.

23:34Andrew Allen: Yeah, I'm not sure if it was tied to a specific incident or just a general trend.

23:40James McNicholas: But anyway, it was clear that if you cover your mouth and say something to an opponent, that you're going to get a red card, right?

23:50Andrew Allen: Yes, and I forget the wording, but it specify something like a, in a confrontational moment or setting, like you can still talk to a teammate behind your hand or what have you, or have a casual interaction, I believe.

24:06James McNicholas: Yeah. So, yeah, I mean, the, the, the idea that you could get sent off for saying something from behind your hand. I mean, I do see that it might be considered harsh, right? because some of the stuff players get away with on a football pitch, you know, bad tackles that don't get punished. And this is, in that sense, quite innocuous. But I think the very simple thing to do is don't cover your mouth when you're talking to an opponent. I mean, because he got grassed up as well. It was Miguel Almiron, formerly of Newcastle, and he did it. And the dude ran over to the referee and was like, hey, hey, look what he did.

24:46James McNicholas: And then he got sent off. So he got snitched up. but he shouldn't have just shouldn't have done it because the rule is there. And I think they were always going to enforce that rule because it's so particular and so specific that unless you, you make players fully aware that this is a rule that's going to be enforced completely from the start, no wishy washy. Oh, you might get a yellow card here. You might get a talking to there. I just think he, he was really stupid to do. I've got no idea what he said, by the way, um don't think anybody does language yeah but i think the the simple answer is just don't do that and and i get it in the pantheon of things that players can get sent off for in a game it's um it's it's very minimal but it's clear also so just don't do it so yeah i agree i think well i i think of course it appears incredibly harsh and i think that would

25:48Andrew Allen: always have been the case in whoever was the first to fall foul of it you know and I hope I don't want to see players sent off for that regularly like I really hope that the football world is kind of smart enough to see this case study and cotton on and be like we won't do that anymore but I think and I don't think anyone to be fair from Turkey or you know from the squad or anything has come out and accused Almiron of saying anything particularly untoward. You know, I've certainly not heard that publicly that what he said was appalling or anything like that. But I think if it prohibits people from having the opportunity to say something that is racially abusive or about somebody's family or, you know, just in some way not appropriate, then I think it's a good law.

26:41Andrew Allen: And, you know, I've had people say to me like, well, what about trash talk? That's part of the game. And I'm like, you can trash talk still. Like you can say pretty much anything you like. Just don't cover your mouth. Yeah, exactly. If you think it's bad enough that it needs to be covered, you probably shouldn't be saying it.

26:56James McNicholas: That's exactly it. That's exactly it, you know. Players mouth off at each other all the time, you know.

27:05Andrew Allen: Will we see a rise in ventriloquist footballers? do you know what i mean guys who like specialize in

27:15James McNicholas: yeah maybe what did he say i didn't say a thing was that guy over there yeah i've got a look here

27:30Andrew Allen: wow these are the dark arts guys absolutely got them all practicing with their ventriloquist dummies at London Colney already.

27:39James McNicholas: Yeah, yeah, yeah. That'll be a fun development for the season ahead, for sure. Listen, there was always going to be somebody who was silly enough not to remember the rule, but I'm sure they've been, I'm sure they've been made aware now, you know, after seeing that the rule is going to be enforced and that guy's going to come and go, red card! Every time it happens, then, yeah, I don't know if we'll see it again in this tournament, but then again, then again, you can never underestimate how stupid some footballers are.

28:11Andrew Allen: No, quite. Do you have like an early hunch in the tournament, an early favourite or front runner or a team that you particularly have enjoyed so far?

28:23James McNicholas: I think, you know, maybe I spoke about this in the week, but, you know, the France forward line would scare any team, I think, and cause any team problems. You know, once they sort of get over the, you know, the fact Didier Deschamps wants to sort of nullify them at every opportunity, it seems, once they sort of play with a bit of gay abandon, if you like, they come to life. I think they've been good. I think there's something about Germany as well. And you mentioned this last week, you know, that it's Germany in the World Cup. I met some German guys on Friday in Dublin. I was going into the shops.

29:09James McNicholas: We were out having a couple of beers. I was getting a couple of things in the shops, and there were some German guys in the off license. And they said to me, they liked my shirt, and they asked me where I got my shirt. And they were wearing their shirt. What's the shirt? It was just like a kind of slightly beachy Hawaiian-type shirt type thing, which I got in Los Angeles last year, a year before, I can't remember. But it's got kind of flowers and shit on it. And it was nice, summer's evening. So he was very nice. He said he liked my shirt. But then he asked me like, do you know where we can watch this game with other Germans?

29:45James McNicholas: And I was like, I actually don't, to be honest. I don't know that we have like little Munich here in Dublin. I don't know where the German quarter is, you know? But maybe if you go to that bar next door, there'll probably be a few lads. So I think they were all right. But yeah, I liked, I sort of, there's something inevitable about Germany in the World Cup. So I think maybe them. Netherlands had a big win, didn't they, against Sweden? Oh, yeah. Not a good night for Victor Jokeres and his pals. But Netherlands, they were very clinical and very efficient with the chances that they had. And I thought this was quite an interesting game because I was watching this one on Saturday evening, I think it was.

30:33James McNicholas: And Netherlands went 2-0 up very early. Brian Broby with the two goals. And then there was a hydration break, an ad break. We should call them for what they are, ad breaks. There was an ad break. And the momentum completely changed again in this game. And it's happened more than once where Netherlands were completely on top. After the ad break, Sweden were much, much better. Obviously, they couldn't do much with it. But I just think it's interesting the way that, you know, players keep getting asked about it. And I haven't really heard too many good answers from the players. I think Mbappe was asked about it and he said, oh, you shouldn't ask us players.

31:17You know, we're all very, you know, changeable or whatever it was. Virgil van Dijk, I think, said, no, these are not good.

31:25James McNicholas: We don't like this. Yeah.

31:28Andrew Allen: Bielsa was good. I don't know if you saw Bielsa's quotes.

31:31James McNicholas: No, I didn't see that. I mean, I saw Saka being asked about it as well, and he just sort of said, nah, I'm not going to answer that. But I think as a player, it must be mentally frustrating, mentally, madly frustrating, to be on top in a game of football. and to be dominating that game. And for no good reason, really, that game is stopped and you have to just like stand around for three minutes because it takes 20 seconds to have a drink of water or whatever, you know, they're drinking, whatever power drinks or whatever stuff they drink. And then you sort of give up that advantage that you've had to work really hard to get in the first place, right?

32:19James McNicholas: Because it's not easy to sort of get on top in a game of football and stay on top. And then when you are on top, you want to use that momentum to score more goals and to make the game safe or make it more difficult for the opposition. And then because of fucking FIFA and Gianni Infantino and certain TV stations wanting ad breaks, you're sort of back to square one. I think I don't really understand why the players aren't speaking out about it more.

32:50Andrew Allen: Yes, I referenced Bielsa's quotes. He said, playing four periods instead of two alters the culturally constructed conception of how to interpret football. In my view, it adds nothing and takes away a lot. When the match was divided into four periods, no thought was given to the effect it might have on what makes football such a captivating sport, but instead to other repercussions, which I'm neither discussing nor analyzing. I'm saying that before this decision, football had one characteristic and now it has a different one. I'm saying that people fall in love with the game because of its characteristics.

33:32Andrew Allen: He's absolutely right.

33:33James McNicholas: Yeah, I mean, that's good. That's good. I think there needs to be, you know, not just me and you and other people sitting on their podcast talking about what a load of old bullshit it is. I think it does need to come from people like Bielsa and from the players themselves. And, you know, for people who actually do love the game, to not let this become something that is more and more, what's the word I'm looking for? It just, yeah, becomes part of how football operates. Yeah, normalised, exactly.

34:06Andrew Allen: You know, I think it is really important. And it's one of those moments, by the way, Andrew, that sort of does cause me to kind of reflect on Arsene and his association with FIFA. And you sort of, I find myself asking, where's he in this? You know, because he is actually a man of some influence in these discussions. So I'd like to think that he'd be sort of putting his head above the parapet, but yeah, regret it. Regrettably, as far as I'm aware, he hasn't.

34:37James McNicholas: No, he hasn't. And I think, you know, somebody at FIFA with the stature that he has and the intelligence that he has and the influence that his words would have, I think it's a shame that he's been silent on something like this. Because, again, to make the point, we can all recognise that if players are playing in, like, ridiculous heat, 30 degrees, 35 degrees, with, like, high humidity, it's it's like important for them to get a hydration break right that is important but for it to be mandated regardless of the weather whether you're the stadium is indoors whether it's got air conditioning whether it's 20 degrees or raining you're still having these three minute breaks and that's where the bullshit is what i think has been a very interesting development over the course of the tournament is that these breaks are now being booed from within the stadiums which is great.

35:33James McNicholas: Like what else can fans do really? You know, because fans are there to support their team and to watch their team play the game of football that we all know and that we all love, which is 45 fucking minutes a half. And then you have a break, you know? So for fans to sort of start showing their displeasure, I think is really, really important. And I hope it continues. And I hope more people who are in a position to speak out about it continue to speak out about it or start speaking out about it.

36:06Andrew Allen: Yeah, I totally agree. I'm very worried about it kind of proliferating from here and being part of other competitions, too. I'll just finish this kind of World Cup section, by the way, with a little anecdote. When you spoke about those German fans saying, where can we watch the game with Germans? when Mexico played their second group stage game a few of us went down to a neighborhood called Pilsen in Chicago which is like historically a sort of big immigrant region big Mexican population there and we watched the game in like a little cash only bar and there was when I arrived there were no seats like my friends had seats but there were no seats and basically a local family were like come sit with us because they were sort of amused by the novelty of this incredibly english guy walking in and they were so friendly and warm and welcoming and they gave me free food and told me everywhere i've got to go in chicago and mexico won as well which was great and it was a bit of a party in there.

37:22Andrew Allen: And it was just one of those moments where you're like, for all the negativity, that is really what, for me, being at or part of or watching a World Cup is about. Yeah. And sort of being swept up in that and the sort of openness and welcoming spirit is like, I think it's pretty unique to the group stage of an international tournament. I think it's, that is the time where that's really about, where everyone's still involved, everyone's still on board. So, yeah, that was a really, that was a really good night. I had a great time.

38:01James McNicholas: No, that's cool. I mean, I think we said that last week as well, didn't we? Some of the scenes of the fans and, you know, it sort of reminds you of what it should be about, you know? Yeah. For all the sort of off-field nonsense and the bald, evil man who is doing his best to wreck the game. I don't mean you.

38:28Andrew Allen: Yeah, thank you. Sorry. I appreciate that. He's given bald men a bad name.

38:34James McNicholas: That's true. That's true. I don't know. What do we do about that? Do we?

38:40Andrew Allen: We have no choice but to get the hair transplant.

38:44James McNicholas: That's it.

38:44Andrew Allen: He leaves us no option, Andrew. We're off to Turkey.

38:48James McNicholas: Yeah.

38:49Andrew Allen: We'll be back in a few weeks. Gather the Patreon money. We are leaving.

38:54James McNicholas: And we're going to come back looking like Fabio.

38:59Andrew Allen: Exactly.

39:00James McNicholas: All right. Well, look, why don't we take a little break here? We've got some questions and stuff. So we'll take a short break here. A hydration break, maybe. We'll take here. And we'll be back with your questions and more in part two right after this. This hydration break is brought to you by water. When you're thirsty, you know what you need? A glass of water. Maybe even a bottle of water. Or if you're from medieval times, a goblet of water. Just get some water.

39:37Andrew Allen: 33 days, 33 episodes, no off switch. From the goals and the glory to the politics and the problems of the World Cup, If you want soccer analysis from a podcast that's been overanalyzing the game for more than 20 years, then this is it. Join me, Max Rushton, and our expert team of soccer journalists every day of the tournament. Can England end 60 years of hurt, or will this be another year of falling just short? Probably. World Cup Daily, listen wherever you get your podcasts, or watch full episodes on YouTube.

40:07James McNicholas: Welcome back to the Arsecast Extra. This is part two of the show where we answer the questions that you sent to us on bluesky at gunnerblog.bsky.social and at arseblog.com. Also on the Arseblog Discord chat server, which you get access to if you are an Arseblog member on Patreon. It is slim pickings a little bit today, James. It's fair to say there isn't really a great deal going on from an Arseblog perspective. Most of the stuff is going on around the World Cup and there isn't really a lot going on, generally speaking, in the transfer market yet. because of the World Cup. So we'll do our best with what we've got.

40:43James McNicholas: And we thank all of you, as ever, for taking the time to send in your questions, however you chose to send them in. Do you want to go first or will I go first?

40:54Andrew Allen: I'll go first. Thank you for the questions. It does help. And people have had to be a bit creative today, which is sometimes a good thing, I think.

41:03Andrew Allen: So HallMike88 on our Discord said, with the prices of Tonali and Anderson, Elliot Anderson that is, now appearing to be around 100 million and 120 million respectively. Are we entering the point where you need to start looking outside the Premier League in terms of buying players? Because Premier League teams are charging each other way too much money for their players.

41:27James McNicholas: I mean, I guess it depends how much money you've got to spend first. Yeah, I mean, they are steep prices on those. They are. I mean, I think 100 million for Tonali is absurd. Good player, but, you know, we talked about him maybe last week and I'm just not 100 % convinced on him. I like Anderson, but I just, you know, 120 million, 130 million it could end up being. Is he the new Declan Rice? Don't know. Good player, but, you know, Man City can afford to spend that. That's the reality of Manchester City, right?

42:04Andrew Allen: And he's English and there's always been that tax. For sure. You know, I think although we obviously reflect on Declan Rice as an incredible signing, I think there was an element of that in his acquisition as well. But yeah, and Arsenal liked Tonali. Arsenal have really liked Tonali, but not at that price. No. You know, I think if it had been£60 million, there was probably a conversation to be had. But as it is, I think Spurs are leading the way, which, you know, tells its own story. It really does. They found someone who will pay£100 million. Fucking hell. And I think City are looking at him as well.

42:55Andrew Allen: But, yeah, I don't think Arsenal will go near that kind of price. Anderson, it's sort of a unique situation where he is English, where both Manchester clubs like him as well. And a bit like with Rice, that's kind of pushed the price up, the competition. But it does raise some interesting questions about the Premier League. We know Mikel Arteta loves to buy Premier League. That's the thing. But it does come at a cost.

43:20James McNicholas: It does. But your money would go further if you spent it elsewhere. But I mean, you know, we talked about the Greek lad last week, Christos Solis. And, you know, you're looking at 40 million, 35 million for a 24-year-old from the Belgian League. So maybe it's reflective of a market in general rather than just the Premier League. Or maybe it is a case that Premier League teams have to pay more because they've got more money than anyone else. But I do think it might be worth, if you've got the contacts, if you've got the scouting, if you've got the eye for talent from elsewhere, it does feel like we could do with one or two of those kinds of signings, right?

44:12James McNicholas: A player from, I don't want to say smaller league, but certainly a league where there isn't that premium, there isn't that tax of a player being English as well. But I guess we'll see when the market starts moving, you know, what is the going rate, you know? We talked about it last year, didn't we, with Matueke, that similar players went for sort of similar prices. You know what I mean? Where, who was in the conversation? Maybe Anthony Alenga? Was he one of those? was in that kind of conversation around that sort of 40 to 50 million for a speedy winger with minimal end product. That's kind of what you were paying.

44:58Andrew Allen: I think, yeah, Lange was one of those names. Trying to think who else was in the conversation. I think people talked about Semenyo at that time, although he didn't move that window. But there were one or two others who went that summer. Oh, maybe Gittins went to Chelsea, similar kind of price level. But yeah, it's interesting comparing the leagues. I mean, United have signed a midfielder called Edison this summer. He's ended up being called up for the Brazil squad. Came on for them the other day. I think he's joined from Atalanta, who have a good reputation for player production. They've paid£35 million from Serie A.

45:41Andrew Allen: And I don't think he's at the level quite of a tonalier than Anderson, But it does show you, I think, there is a differential across the leagues in terms of what's expected to be paid.

45:51James McNicholas: I mean, you know, based on what you're hearing from afar, obviously, is that an area of focus for Andrea Berta and the recruitment team and maybe even Mikel Arteta where he already has lots of established Premier League talent? and that may be the way to sort of be smart about this summer, you know, unless a big opportunity comes along in Premier League terms, and I can't really think of who that is or who that player might be, then you are probably going to have to look at Spain, at France, at Brazil, at South America, you know, somewhere in Eastern Europe perhaps to try and find that little bit of talent that other people aren't really looking at.

46:35Andrew Allen: Well, I think that conversation between Andrea Berta and Mikhail Teta will have some echoes of last summer's conversation where, you know, Alexander Izak moved within the Premier League, but at an incredibly high price. And the conversation had to be, you know, it's feasible that Arsenal could do that, but it would be at the expense of several other deals. and Arsenal ultimately went for a player from the Portuguese league that was considerably cheaper but allowed them to strengthen the squad in other areas and I think probably a similar conversation will be had this summer I mean in terms of a Premier League opportunity and I do think there are potential ramifications here the one that everybody's talking about is Morgan Rodgers and my slight worry on that is that Aston Villa will look at a price for Sandro Tonali or Elliot Anderson and adjust their sights accordingly.

47:36Andrew Allen: You know, if, if Sandro Tonali is a hundred million pound player, what is Morgan Rogers?

47:42James McNicholas: Yeah. Or what, you know, what, why wouldn't Villa look for more? Yeah. If that's where the bar is. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. So that's a little bit of a, yeah, like something that I'm like,

47:54Andrew Allen: if the market in England inflates sufficiently, you know, Does that make him, is he still attractive at that kind of price? You know, if you're talking about a fee considerably in excess of£100 million, you know, that's a lot of money at that point in time.

48:11James McNicholas: It sure is. What about this? Yeah. You go, you go. Well, we've one from JMO here on Blue Sky, drjimmyp.bsky.social. And he says, in his opinion, Arteta would clearly upgrade on Eze, Rogers, and Jochrez with Alvarez if he could, and he is sufficiently ruthless to do so. Being realistic, however, is it remotely possible that one or both of those players leave this summer despite only signing 12 months ago?

48:42Andrew Allen: Yeah, and interesting in the light of some slightly spewish reporting from Spain of a potential Jochrez-Alvarez swap. Not something I have heard, I must say. I've seen it mooted by fans, but not something I've sort of credibly sourced. Do I see either of those players leaving? Honestly, no, I don't. I think they've both signed long-term contracts. I don't think that Rodgers is necessarily perceived as an upgrade or replacement for Eze I think it would be a compliment probably and yeah I just don't see a buyer I don't see a situation where either of those players leave so soon I think ultimately they both played a significant part in the running and I'm actually kind of curious to see where they go with us next season and what we're able to extract from them after that initial year of adaptation.

49:56Andrew Allen: What do you think?

49:57James McNicholas: No, I can't see either of them leaving and I'm not sure that, like you say, Rodgers is an upgrade on Ezzet per se. I think it is about adding something to the squad in a different area of the pitch. But there was a question. Yeah. Another question on strikers comes from, oh gosh, Harigovind SM on the Discord. And he says, assuming we do the right business at left wing, how comfortable are you going into next season if we don't buy a striker? are we still one big kai injury away from achieving all we want to achieve? And the reason I sort of picked this question out was because I'm sort of, I'm expecting Gabriel Jesus to move, to leave.

50:52I know he's been saying, I want to stay and fight for my place

50:56James McNicholas: and see out my contract, blah, blah, blah. My guess is that Arsenal would be keen for him to move on. If that is the case, and if it is a case that Gabriel Jesus leaves, how are Arsenal going to fill that particular gap, do you think? You know, will it be a signing? Will it be? Is that where you've got a Jokeres who's 27, 28, Kai Havertz more or less the same age? is that maybe where there's space for a young striker like a croupie or maybe somebody a bit left of field more left to feel than that do you think it's necessary if gabriel jesus leaves that arse will sign another forward good question and by the way on the subject of brazilian forwards

51:47Andrew Allen: who may or may not leave i should give a quick shout out to gabriel martinelli who came off Brazil the other night and had a really, really strong cameo. It was like a good reminder that for all people's frustrations about Gabriel Martinelli, there are certain game states that just really, really suit him. But, yeah, if Jesus goes, so we'd have Jocarez Havertz. I mean, I guess Trossard becomes your third choice centre-forward, but he might also go. and then beyond that, you haven't really got even a senior player. I mean, you know, we've talked about Martinelli as a centre forward, but it's never really come to pass.

52:36Andrew Allen: You're kind of down to two, aren't you, at that point? So, yeah, for me, I think that's where I would envisage maybe a younger forward, like you're saying. I'm not even sure if Kruppi would be the right profile because I kind of think he might be too heavy an investment for someone who's basically regarded as a third choice option. Like I wonder if it's more of a punt on like an 18-year-old.

53:06James McNicholas: Yeah, that's kind of what I was thinking, you know. Yeah, like, you know, I'm trying to think of a signing

53:14Andrew Allen: that we've made of that ilk previously. I can only keep thinking of Yaya Sanoko. But, you know, like someone who's like a prospect, basically who can fulfill I suppose what was kind of like an Eddie Nketiah role in the squad for a period of time where it's like you are that young promising forward, maybe you're going to make it with Arsenal if you don't you're a saleable asset who's increased in value yeah that's kind of what my instinct would be I think I mean again the price for Alvarez is looking very, very high. Atletico have been resistant to Barca's sort of opening overtures. For sure. So I think the likelihood is that we go into next season with Havertz and Jochores as the first choice too.

54:10Andrew Allen: But I do think you would probably need to supplement that in some way.

54:14James McNicholas: Yeah. Another interesting aspect to how the summer might play out for sure. Definitely.

54:22Andrew Allen: What was this question? Well, Chargui, I just mentioned him, said Trossard just had a very good game against Iran despite Belgium drawing. How tough is that left-wing discussion this summer for us as fans, but most importantly, internally for the club? Hmm.

54:44James McNicholas: It does feel like it's the area of the pitch where perhaps we're most in need of a refresh, right?

54:55Andrew Allen: The contract situations tell you that. I think Trossard expires next summer. I think Martinelli's is currently set to expire next summer, but the club definitely hold an option on that to trigger an extra year. But, you know, when a player is within option or no option, When a player has got to within 12 months of the end of their contract, decisions have to be taken.

55:21James McNicholas: Yeah, I mean, the Trossard one is, you know, in part because of his age as well. You know, he's sort of in the September of his career, I think it's fair to say. You know, when you get to 31, 32 as a forward player, you know, even if you're not like massively dependent on your pace, I think there is a, you know, a shelf life, obviously. And if you can get some money for a player of that age, then I guess you're sort of inclined to take it. Martinelli, I mean, yeah, I don't know. So, like, the Solace guy maybe comes in and maybe he's a whiz kid and maybe he sort of takes his career to a new level in a way that, you know, some players can do at the age of 24.

56:11James McNicholas: I think Didier Drogba, for example, was 24 when he came to the Premier League and then really developed into, you know, one of the best strikers around at that point in his career. Maybe Olivier Giroud as well, to an extent, somebody who did go up a level when he came to the Premier League at that sort of age. But I don't really see him sort of coming in and being, just developing into like a world-class left winger. And that could be completely wrong about that, but he does feel like a squad signing more than a first name on the team sheet kind of signing, right? Yeah. And then it's like, who else is out there?

56:53James McNicholas: or, you know, what way are you going to pick your team next season? Will it be Rodgers out on the left sometimes? Will it be Eza out on the left sometimes? Are you going to go get the next Kvara Shkelia, whoever it might be, you know? Is that what they're planning? I don't know. I really don't know. But again, you know, with that sort of forward option that we might need to have, I think it is going to be interesting to see what way they go. Um, I don't have any idea who the player is that we should absolutely be going hell for leather to bring in. You know, I don't know who that is. Uh, I guess ours will probably have a list of targets and list of names and stuff, but I don't think there is that outstanding candidate, you know, in like, if we got to the end of the season and, and, um, Antoine Semenya had stayed at Bournemouth for the whole season.

57:49James McNicholas: And I think that's probably the one everyone will be talking about, but that's off the table for obvious reasons.

57:55Andrew Allen: No, that's true. And I also think that there's sort of a bit of inertia in the market currently because of the World Cup. And so you kind of wait and see which dominoes fall to an extent as well. But I do think that left wing conversation, I think it does need to be addressed this summer. I think, you know, obviously there was potential it could be addressed last summer and Arsenal ultimately parked it. What I don't want to see is someone like Leandro Trossard, as much as I think he's been brilliant for us, I don't really want to see him walk away for nothing in 12 months. I'm sure he would be open to that because that would be super lucrative to move as a free agent at that stage of his career.

58:38Andrew Allen: but yeah and a previous sort of iterations of the arsenal administration i could absolutely see that happening but i think in the current regulator environment where income generated from football and from player sales is so important in allowing you to to spend more i think you've got to try and take the opportunity to to get a fee for him while you can yeah um and that's not me pushing him to the door because i think he's not a good player i think he's a really good player but I just think it's the right time to make that so I mean is is another

59:11James McNicholas: left-wing addition is it incumbent on both Trossard and Martinelli going like if Solis is coming in he's an option but do you need more than him plus as a plus Rodgers or is there something else they can do in terms of how they configure the squad I think definitely both could go because

59:35Andrew Allen: if Rodgers were to come, which is by no means a guarantee, but I think that would lead to one of him or Eze being seen on the left a bit more frequently. I think Maduweke can play left side as well. That was something that was, you know, experimented with early in the season. And then not much more. Never used again. But like, I think that, I think it's very possible that both go. But I think Trossard, because of the age, would be the one that I was more actively, if I'm Andrea Berta, I think I'm making more phone calls to people about Trossard. Yeah. At this point.

1:00:16James McNicholas: Yeah. Okay. Well, we'll see. We'll see what happens.

1:00:20Andrew Allen: We will see. What else we got here? Oh, this is just kind of a life advice one. Maybe we'll do that at the end.

1:00:31James McNicholas: Okay.

1:00:35Andrew Allen: Ebue doesn't mess around. Will we win the Champions League for the first time next year or the year after? Next year. Okay, great. All right. I'll put the date in my diary. Where's the final next year?

1:00:48James McNicholas: Madrid. It's in the Metropolitano in Madrid.

1:00:52Andrew Allen: Oh, we know that stadium now. Mm. Yeah. We know it well. We do. We've done the dry run.

1:00:58James McNicholas: Mm-hmm.

1:01:00Andrew Allen: Okay, well, that's good news. That is good news.

1:01:02James McNicholas: Danny Nick 8 says, how much have you enjoyed Thierry and Zlatan's complete disdain for that cretin Alexi Lalas? Yeah, this is fascinating psychological drama playing out on Fox. Hang on, I just want to make sure that this is not going to be another sort of Chris Sutton moment where, you know, you might have to run into Alexi Lalas and deal with the consequences of that. there was a really good piece in the Guardian, I think I linked to it today in the blog today, by a guy called Aaron Timms and he's talking about Thierry and the sort of the punditry and the analysis that he's bringing to Fox Sports this summer which is in stark contrast to what Lalas himself is providing, this is a really, really well written piece so go to the blog today at rsblog.com and you'll find a link to that in there.

1:02:00Andrew Allen: I must say, not to leap to Lalas' defence, because I have no intention of doing so. I do find this particular dynamic a little bit more complex simply because I also think Zlatan is a cunt. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, no, I understand. He strikes me as a sociopath.

1:02:27Andrew Allen: So, you know, like, I get it. And I think he's probably the lesser of the two evils here. But, like, I don't think I'll ever be team Zlatan.

1:02:36James McNicholas: No, I know where you're coming from. I know where you're coming from. But I did enjoy the one where Lalas was not there and they made a joke about it. And Zlatan just turns to the camera and goes, you're welcome, America. I thought that was...

1:02:52Andrew Allen: Yeah. I mean, listen, there's been some funny moments. And there was a great, I saw the lovely clip of them sort of doing keepy-uppy in the TV studio. Zlatan's an amazing player. There's no doubt about that. And he's an authority on football. But yeah, I think he's also quite toxic. So yeah, it's not a happy camp all round. What about Gary Lineker turning up on ITV? Were you aware of this?

1:03:23James McNicholas: I was vaguely aware of that, but he's doing a thing for Netflix. I think the rest is football podcast is on Netflix for the duration of the thing. I haven't watched any, I have to say. I was flicking through Netflix the other night and I saw it there and I was like, no, I won't do that. But then, yeah, he turned up on ITV who have apparently a very cool studio in Brooklyn. Is that right? They're in New York. I think BBC are doing their coverage from Manchester.

1:03:57Andrew Allen: Salford, yeah, until the knockouts, I believe. Oh, okay. They're getting some people out for the latter stages. Okay, okay. But, yeah, they've been sort of widely mocked for their kind of CG studio, and it's small table.

1:04:14James McNicholas: Small table. Yeah, yeah. Like, is it actually a small table or is it a CGI small table, one of those sort of green screen? like if people don't know like those those sets it's just like big green screens and then it's projected um you know the setting is projected onto them right but is the table real or not real is it a real small table or is it a fake small table i actually don't know i think it's a real

1:04:41Andrew Allen: table um hence it being somewhat underwhelming itv have clearly spent the whole budget on the studio they've got this stunning view over brooklyn um and yeah so gary lineker formerly the mr bbc really wasn't mr match of the day mr world cup um turned up on itv to do a spot of punditry and to promote his podcast on netflix i bet indeed which he probably wouldn't have been able to do on the bbc anyway but it was just very surreal you know it was like seeing a player holding up the wrong shirt you know yeah yeah yeah i get it it was an odd sight but um yeah how what about in ireland what are you getting on your tv coverage are there any pundit wars playing out um no i'm

1:05:29James McNicholas: not really paying too much attention there's quite a bit of uh connie kenningham um oh yes well he's doing some of the commentary i don't think they have uh commentator with maybe not maybe one commentary team is actually out there and then i think a lot of them are doing sort of remote uh commentary there was a game the other night where the commentator i can't remember his name and connie kenningham were just they weren't talking about the game at all they were just complaining about everything just complaining about hydrate ad breaks complaining about camera angles complaining about the referee complaining about everything it was um it was quite tedious actually you know because i i connect with many of the complaints but jesus christ but no i'm i'm sort of i'm not really watching any of the halftime stuff or any of the postgame stuff or anything like that so i don't know what's i don't know what's

1:06:26Andrew Allen: been going on really what soap opera drama is yeah i don't think there's anything i haven't

1:06:32James McNicholas: read anything anyway there's a website that does all that tv stuff i think it's called balls.ie oh yes yes I'm aware of it there doesn't appear to be any sort of pundit wars no no no

1:06:51Andrew Allen: I think that's and quite right too yeah so yeah I mean I mean we didn't touch on the US by the way and their national team

1:07:01James McNicholas: but they beat Australia 2-0 yeah

1:07:04Andrew Allen: going quite strong I mean you know I would point out for balance, they've not yet really played anyone of great note. Who do they play?

1:07:15James McNicholas: Paraguay. Paraguay. You're really going to upset our Australian listeners with that one.

1:07:20Andrew Allen: Well, to be fair, Australia in their first game were excellent, but I was pretty disappointed in their second performance. So we shall see. There's a bit of excitement building here about how far the US might go.

1:07:34James McNicholas: Right. Well, yeah. if it's in your backyard, so to speak.

1:07:40Andrew Allen: Exactly.

1:07:44We are really scraping this barrel.

1:07:47James McNicholas: Yeah, I think so. I think so. There's not a lot really going on. Kelvin wants to know why are players reverting back to wired headphones instead of Bluetooth ones? That's a big trend. Asking the real questions here now, he says. I don't even remember this, because I think I talked about this on a podcast. Yeah, we talked about this maybe last season. Yeah.

1:08:07Andrew Allen: Yeah. I've pivoted back to wired because, and the simple answer is, A, I kept losing the little AirPod thingies, and B, battery life. The Bluetooth connection was just draining my battery all day. And I thought, I've had enough of this. I've gone back to wired. And somebody told me like a week or two ago that that is now a bit of a trend that young people, of which I am very much no longer one, have reverted to wired. For battery life? I don't know for why. I don't know if it's like a fashion thing or. Don't know.

1:08:48James McNicholas: Some leads dangling out of your ears and stuff like that. Yeah.

1:08:52Andrew Allen: Why are young people using the things that come up? No, I don't want to know. No, please don't. Why are young people using canes, walking sticks, nicotine pouches, subtitles, Viagra, and wired headphones? Okay. What's the deal with white wired headphones making a comeback? It's a sort of throwback aesthetic, apparently.

1:09:17James McNicholas: It's like collecting vinyl, you know?

1:09:20Andrew Allen: Right.

1:09:21James McNicholas: That's it. You've got to find it.

1:09:22Andrew Allen: I'm just doing it for practicality. I think that makes me not cool.

1:09:25James McNicholas: And it's not like a reaction to the idea that the Bluetooth, the rays are going from one ear to the other ear, and then one multiplied by one becomes 17.

1:09:39Andrew Allen: None of that? None of that so far. The Bluetooth backlash, this BBC article is calling it.

1:09:46James McNicholas: Okay. Wow.

1:09:49Andrew Allen: I think I started something, Andrew. Another thing I've started. it you're

1:09:55James McNicholas: incorrigible what can I say 1.76 acres wants to know who is the dolt who gave Declan Rice a baseball bat which apparently is one of the worst pieces of sports equipment you can give somebody with a bad back why haven't they been sacked immediately if they're part of our coaching or media team well they wouldn't they be part of the England coaching or media team it was Ezza and Rice Rice was flinging a baseball at Ezza I saw a little clip of that during the round

1:10:23Andrew Allen: Yeah, didn't Eze release the bat when he hit it or something? Yeah, it went up in the air.

1:10:28James McNicholas: And it... Feels quite dangerous, potentially. It hit Thomas Tuchel right smack in the middle of the forehead.

1:10:36Andrew Allen: Oh, that's him out of the next game. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, I'm sure they're being forced to do all sorts of insane promo stuff. It's when they have to start doing that during the hydration breaks that we should worry. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.

1:10:50James McNicholas: Exactly.

1:10:52Andrew Allen: But yeah, there was a thing with England where the assistant manager gave ITV an interview at half time. Did you see that?

1:11:00James McNicholas: No. Who is the England assistant manager? Is it one of Thomas Tuchel's buddies or is it?

1:11:05Andrew Allen: Yeah, he's a Scouse guy. England assistant manager. What is his name? I wasn't stupid. It's Anthony Barry. Right.

1:11:20James McNicholas: wasn't he famous is he english or irish is he irish in some way because i remember reading some

1:11:28Andrew Allen: stories about him pretty sure he's from oh he was part of the irish setup you're right yeah there was a connection he worked under roberto martinez with belgium and he yeah, he was in Stephen Kenny's Irish coaching team which he combined with a role at Chelsea. Bloody hell. But yes, he gave an interview at half-time and I believe he's going to continue to do so. Right.

1:11:59James McNicholas: They always seem very pointless, you know.

1:12:03Andrew Allen: Yeah, I think apparently he was quite forthright. He was quite sort of critical of the team. Let's see. if that continues. Hopefully not, because that means they're doing very badly. England playing tomorrow, of course. England play tomorrow against Ghana. And today, Fox have gone big on Haaland, Messi and Mbappe all play today. Right.

1:12:29James McNicholas: But not against each other all at the same time. In a cracking game of three and in. Exactly.

1:12:39Andrew Allen: No, not that. The race for the golden boot, though. Yes. Hots up.

1:12:44James McNicholas: Okay.

1:12:46Andrew Allen: So, yeah, that's what we're looking at today. Right. Right. Right, I'm going to give you this question that's not about football.

1:12:54James McNicholas: Okay, all right. Sure. Let's do that and then we'll get out of here. Yeah, we have.

1:12:57Andrew Allen: We have. This is from Dylan. He says, read the discussion on the last pod about conversations on flights. I'm currently cycling across the US. Oh, fuck. that must take ages yeah and on the second day a very nice woman and i decided to team up for the foreseeable future i've now reached the point that i'd like to travel alone nothing personal just introvertedness kicking in but i don't know how to tell her i wish to do this what do i do also should we put in a bid for bergval

1:13:35James McNicholas: What do you do? I mean, you could do the thing that they do in the Tour de France where they're all booting along together, right? And then the guy says, fuck this. I'm going to go way faster than everybody else. And he sprints off and gets a big gap. and then you just sort of take a different route than you discussed previously. But then again, you're leaving this woman, who I presume is also cycling across the US, all on her own, which is, you know, maybe a little bit dangerous for that woman.

1:14:16Andrew Allen: I think he's just got no choice but to be faster. You know what I mean? He's just got to pedal away from her. Be faster or get married. Get married to her. He's got to use it as his motivation. like every time he sees her in his rearview mirror if you have those on bikes he he's just got to accelerate away yeah like let her chase him but i mean it feels like a rom-com to be honest she's just a little legging it after him yeah she stopped when harry cycled across america with

1:14:48James McNicholas: sally she stops off at lance armstrong's house and gets a few you know special pills and she's on the blood spinning, right? And then... It's like that new movie that's out, Obsession. You know that one where the guy, and then like he, she's just nonstop. However fast he goes, she just speeds up alongside him. Hi there. Yeah.

1:15:14Andrew Allen: Keep us up to date though, Dylan. I feel like this could be the start of a beautiful adventure.

1:15:19James McNicholas: Or a very long one because I just Googled how long does it take to cycle across the US? And bearing in mind, And of course that the AI answer from Google could be a load of shit because, you know, quite often they are. It says cycling across the United States typically takes eight to 12 weeks. That's a lot.

1:15:41Andrew Allen: Wow.

1:15:42James McNicholas: That is longer than this World Cup.

1:15:45Andrew Allen: That's fortunate. Yeah, I was worried about being stuck on a plane for nine hours with somebody. This really puts that in perspective. Yeah, it does. All right. It does. All right.

1:15:56James McNicholas: That's an awkward one, but good luck. Yes. Either go really, really fast or just incredibly slow. Just say, my bike is stuck in first gear. I can't go any faster than this. Doing that one where, you know, you're like pedaling really, really fast, but you're still not going. Just go. Oh, that one.

1:16:15Andrew Allen: Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's quite fun.

1:16:17James McNicholas: You go on ahead. Don't worry about me. No, no, please. I can't be holding you up. Please, you go on and get to wherever it is you're going. I wonder which side he's going from. Is he going from like east to west or west to east? Left to right, I think. Left to right? Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

1:16:33Andrew Allen: That would be my guess.

1:16:34James McNicholas: I mean, that's the way I would go. That's the way I'd go, I have to say. What an auspicious 700th podcast we have produced here. Amazing.

1:16:44Andrew Allen: Amazing.

1:16:45James McNicholas: The quality never dips. Never dips. It's so consistent. So what's your week like? Like just, you know, more TV stuff. You're not flying back to the UK for an hour and then flying back to Chicago or anything?

1:16:58Andrew Allen: No, I've taken pity on the ozone layer and will remain in America for the next one, two, three, four weeks. Right.

1:17:11James McNicholas: Well, at some point in those four weeks, you're going to have to have the deep dish pizza. So, you know. Exactly.

1:17:17Andrew Allen: That's what's going to, that's the hook that keeps people coming back to the podcast.

1:17:22James McNicholas: I hope so

1:17:23Andrew Allen: I hope so Yeah I'm going to go and do the show now and then I'm going to watch watch some games France-Iraq Norway-Senegal Beautiful

1:17:33James McNicholas: Beautiful stuff I might watch a bit of the football but what game is on early today? Argentina versus Austria Arnautovic the Lidl Ibrahimović Yeah is going to be playing for Austria against Lionel Messi and his chums. So I might watch a bit of that, but it's warm. The sun's out. I might also just go out in the back garden and, you know, grill up a couple of steaks and sit there and read my book. So who knows? We'll see.

1:18:05Andrew Allen: Lovely. Sounds good, man. Well, enjoy it.

1:18:07James McNicholas: I will do my best and you enjoy yourself this week before we talk to you, obviously, next week and to everybody. Thank you for being here. Thank you for still being here if you've got this far. we really do appreciate it on days like this we'll have something for you later in the week but for now take it easy folks and we will catch you on the next one

1:18:26Andrew Allen: bye bye

1:18:48Andrew Allen: where you'll find it. We'll be producing 33 daily episodes across the tournament, breaking down all the action, the results, and of course, the drama. Can the US make it out of the group stage and into the spotlight on the biggest stage? World Cup Daily, listen wherever you get your podcasts or watch full episodes on YouTube.