Arsenal Women Arsecast 129: On the Smith edge

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0:45hello and welcome to the arsenal women ask cast on askblog.com with me your host tim stillman um i think you can probably take a guess about what this episode's going to be about because some big news dropped this week. We've been talking on the podcast pretty much all summer about how Olivia Smith was a serious target for Arsenal. We had some whiff on Wednesday evening that there might have been a breakthrough. We couldn't really bottom the information out, but that's no worries because Tom Gary from The Guardian, who is an exceptional journalist with lots of contacts. He did. And Arsenal have had a bid of£1 million accepted for Olivia Smith.

1:25And frankly, I'm expecting this deal to happen pretty quickly now. So we felt we should react to that. Now, Jamie is still in Switzerland covering the Euros. So I've invited a guest on who some of you will probably be familiar with. A little bit of crossover content, if you will, from Arsenal Vision podcast but I'm delighted to be joined by Clive Palmer and Clive this is a player we've been discussing in the whatsapps for the last few months and we're going to bring that conversation to life for an audience today. If those whatsapps ever got leaked Tim they would see everything that we talk about and you've been educating me now for about two three years on this I'm very glad to be here to share this moment which we are both excited about.

2:10Yeah absolutely And I think there's a couple of interesting angles here. We'll come on to the player herself and what she might bring in a minute. But Clive, I am going to leak some of the WhatsApp stuff, not all of it, from stuff that we've talked about. Just before Arsenal played Liverpool on the 9th of March, I said to you, Olivia Smith, for them, very good player. I believe we're looking at her for the summer. after the game after she kind of destroyed us you said Olivia Smith has Lauren James potential we should do whatever it takes and then there are some messages from sorry the end of May I say to you Olivia Smith is the top target for the summer to which you reply do it I will buy more shirts if necessary and then there's one from the 3rd of June where I kind of say I've heard that Liverpool want one million pounds and Tom Gary reporting that that is exactly the bid and it's going to be the first million pound player in women's football we'll talk about that a bit but Clive before we come on to the player I think there's an interesting angle here about what this says that Arsenal are slapping the money down and from what I was always told Liverpool's position was always is that's the price, pay it or go away.

3:37And they did tell a lot of clubs to go away, who offered slightly lower. So let's talk first about that kind of Arsenal. And they have done this before. They've just never had the bid accepted. This time it's been accepted. £1 million, Arsenal looking to break the world transfer record. What do you think this says about Arsenal women and their current project, shall we say? Well, it shows they're not resting on their laurels from Lisbon. I think it's time to really push forward in WSL. Everyone wants the same thing. They want to see us compete in that a lot more. The game is at a critical moment, actually.

4:11We all know the Euros are going on right now. But the WSL viewing figures maybe plateaued a little bit, if not fell. And that's because there was little or no jeopardy in the league. So we are duty-bound to create jeopardy. And you had to do that. You have to get the best players. As simple as that. Because Chelsea are running away with things. So I think it says a lot about what we're trying to do. We've got 11 WSL games at the Emirates next year and lots of green spaces in wide areas. And the first two signings have been wide players. And it makes a lot of sense by the way we play. Tim, you know the age profile of our wide players is a little bit high.

4:51So we have to get younger in those spaces. They're high physical repeat sprint positions. so you have to have the ability to change the game which which we will now have so I think it also shows Rene this is the first couple of signs that she's made from position of strength so now she's got the Champions League in her back pocket what do you stand for Rene what do what type of team do you want and this is a this is a signal for that as well I think I'm genuinely excited about this because I think it really shows a positive direction about where we're going going forward. Yeah, absolutely. And I think one of the things people will often ask me as well, Clive, about transfer fees, because they're so much smaller than the men's game.

5:36And actually, Arsenal's first two signings of the summer have been free transfers. Looks like they're going to bring in a goalkeeper on a free transfer. Maybe Arsenal will view it they've potentially saved a bit of money there to leave the room to do something like this, which they have, I believe, have wanted to kind of make this signing for a little while. But it's so difficult to pass when there's not really a big range of prices. Like in men's football, 30 million, 50 million, 70 million. There's a lot of room there. Whereas in women's football, it's a bit like 300 ,000, a million. It's difficult to pass what value is.

6:13But I mean, I think this will be another world record. I think the world record transfer has quadrupled in the last two years. And I think this is one of those signings that a million looks hefty at the moment, but maybe in two years' time will look like normal business. Yeah, I agree with you. And why would you do this? So let's think what's happening in the game. The game's going to explode. There's going to be more and more fixtures. I just read last week there was something called the Champions Cup coming soon. so which Arsenal are in there's an Asia Cup next year isn't it Tim yeah in March so we'll lose Caitlin almost certainly for that period almost certainly and when that happened last time we suffered for it when we lost the Australian players and then you sort of got the expansion of the Champions League but definitely a changing format in the Champions League coming up we know the WSL is going to grow shortly so the way football works there's going to be more games coming right so you have to project forward you know and so that price may be cheap really really quickly because the demand was pitch for the top teams will drive that market price upward so if you are going to pay that number make it be for a 20 20 year old with huge potential that we've all seen the league have a major impact on both flanks that really presses hard from the front end of the pitch i mean there's a lot to like there so i'm comfortable with this because I think it future-proofs us and future-proofs where the game is going.

7:47So I'm really comfortable with it. And you talked about, you know, the squad age profile coming down, which I think Arsenal are kind of on and off the record. You know, certainly there's no secret there. I've talked about it at length a lot. Apologies if you hear a little bit of a buzzing in the background. I've got a gardener doing the lawn. It's that time of year. so you know there's but Arsenal have struggled to get younger Clive because maybe some of the young players we've bought someone like Gio who had a lot of potential but maybe England wasn't for her Rosa Kafadji was a market opportunity I think we kind of grabbed that but maybe didn't have a proper plan for her and then we changed manager but then there are a couple of young players well there's one we for a goalkeeper young that we brought in last year in Daphne van domsler who had a year at aston villa before we paid for her olivia smith went to liverpool for 200 000 pounds last summer yeah and arsenal i think could have done that deal if they wanted to i'm sure she'd have come but they've waited a year she had a very good year at liverpool and now they're paying a million how do you feel about the kind of obviously we don't know yet whether olivia smith is going to be a success i'm sure she will be about is that a way to go to just pay a little bit more and see what they do in the league first or do you think you know Arsenal should have better and more confident talent ID perhaps to go after these players before they cost you a million pounds yeah I think the line you said there was we didn't quite have a plan for some of those players I think that's the most important thing whether you do make sure your plan for their integration into the team and the squad is really solid and they get good play time Tim you know better than me that hasn't always been the case in the recent past and we've lost some talents that maybe maybe they weren't ready for us but they were still talents that we chose to to buy or bring into the club and we haven't really got them onto the pitch and I think looking from the outside in we could be critiqued for not integrating young players in timely enough and we are sitting there still with a hangover for Lisbon it's very hard to say that But it's true, right?

9:59So, but we've succeeded with the group that we have right now to a point. But in WSL, we haven't. So we do need to integrate younger players. We do need to make sure they have time on the pitch and there's a plan for them. We do need to make sure from the outside world that we are perceived as a club that wants to give young players a chance. And so that's where I am with it right now. Is this a way forward? It's an expensive way forward. I think it would be much better to have a good plan at base, but to give the club a break on this one, we had a bit of chopping and changing with the manager and maybe some plans got lost in the change of roles, etc.

10:36But I do think this pause now for a moment of strength with the Champions League in the back pocket is a really good time to say, this is how we're going to operate going forward. And I think we're well positioned to be this club. Yeah, absolutely. I do think there's so much that's incidental as well about kind of developing young players. I think there's a parallel universe where we signed Olivia Smith last summer. She sits on our bench. Rosa Kofaci goes to Liverpool and we're probably buying Rosa Kofaci for£1 ,000 this summer. Like I do think there is something about players that age needing to play first.

11:13However, let's talk a little bit about the player because Arsenal, you know, at the moment are going in for the first time in ages with four international wingers, which for one reason or another, and a lot of it related to Lina Hurtig's injury issues, they've just not quite been able to do. And Clive, a game you and I have talked about quite a lot. I mean, there's two games talked about, most obviously Champions League final. Beth Mead comes on, Stina Blackstenius comes on. They combine to score the winner. That's powering up from the bench. but the other game we talk about is Chelsea away where Chelsea bring on let me see if I can get this right Gourou Wrighton I think Meccano comes on I think Lauren James definitely came on Lauren James came on they put on four attackers we put two on and then we put Kofadji on with about two minutes to go when we were down to ten so in that game we couldn't power up and I think we're both of the opinion that maybe Beth, although I think that will happen less with Chloe Kelly there, and Caitlin have been overburdened in recent seasons.

12:22And I guess what Smith adds to our wide options and perhaps adds qualities we don't have. Yeah, absolutely. And so Caitlin Ford's a good example, actually, because I think she had a great season this season, but last season I think she was overplayed. And she struggled towards the end, and she's really come back strongly and probably been overplayed again, but she's produced a lot more and a lot better. performances. Obviously, best return to play post-injury was a challenge, but we had to work her through that. So I think this is the way going forward. Having multiple wide players. You think about how Arsenal play, Tim.

12:57We all know what happens. We play the ball. We want to go to those wide areas, don't we? We want to get there as quickly as possible. And from there, it's about supporting that wide player with underlaps, overlaps, and getting the ball into the central spaces. So if you're going to have that style, you should invest in that style and i'm really pleased to see this in the investment i just i just thinking that you know first and foremost it's bringing the age profile down i think something we've agreed with when you get to those late 20s early 30s you don't want to run about so much you don't want to run in behind maybe you don't want to press as regularly you you become smarter with your energy so you want to receive the ball to feet a lot more it's just natural you know it's just naturally just happens and you develop a different game where we need to be having a looks like we're going to move to more so more of a high energy full pressing game potentially and we can now do that with a less year up front and freedom island in behind and really be aggressive in stages to take games away from people so i i'm all for that i i think as a player olivia she has the left and right ability you know for sure and she can she can run tim that's for sure She can carry it from both sides.

14:07She carries it really strongly, runs around people. And she can shoot off both feet. I'm trying to find a down part here, really. I mean, there isn't one. That's why you pay the money, though, isn't it? That's why you pay the money. Yeah, let's talk a little bit about that. Because Olivia Smith last season, she started on the left for Liverpool. But then they moved over to the right. And I think a little bit of that was maybe a balance thing. because they were kind of playing with wing-backs sometimes, but they got kind of Taylor Hines on the left, who they really push up. And I think as a kind of balance thing, they thought, well, actually, maybe we should put Olivia Smith on the right.

14:44And actually, she really popped on the right-hand side. And Arsenal kind of need a left winger. There is a shortage of left-footed players in women's football overall. I don't think we've had a left-footed winger since Rachel Yankee. basically it's always yeah it's always been a righty on the left and obviously we've got Beth Mead and Chloe Kelly for the right so it does feel as though most of Olivia Smith's minutes would probably come on the left and obviously as well as that Clive we've got to consider the different play styles at Liverpool it's all based around her they play on the counter they play through her they get her running into space and running at people that's not how people are going to play against Arsenal do you have any reservations over those things or how do you see that all fitting together that's a really good point i think when you see the highlights of her it's all big distance running isn't it running in breaking up the pitch and she can manage that really really well but within that construct you can see the tight control in the box to create space for shots so she can manipulate the ball and move it the thing about our wide players all four of them really they can both, sorry, all of them can play both sides.

15:57And we've seen it. And so it'll be interesting to see maybe the partnerships we have with the fullbacks, you know, what the unit's going to be in those wide areas and which ones they see to start games and end games on any given day, who's best in the home games, who's better in the away games to start, who's best to finish in these games. So I think we can have these discussions now, Tim, on WhatsApp because we've got options, haven't we? There was a time a couple of years ago where we didn't have those options you know and lena hurtig was a was a reason for that just not being available we started mariona out there on the left side from the early part of the season because we're trying to find a spot and fill a fill a gap maybe so now we can keep the players that are better in central spaces in central spaces and have people that are happy out wide out wide and i think that development alone will allow us to develop a new style of play maybe a much more regular style of play outside of the team that went to Lisbon, which we all know.

16:56And how about, you know, we, so for those of you who don't know, Clive and I on a friend of this show, Platformwise Arsenal Vision, we do like a monthly Patreon podcast called One Club, where we kind of look at bigger issues. And actually one of the things we talked about very recently was about, you know, developing young players at Arsenal, why that hasn't worked and things like that. And perhaps where Arsenal can get better with that. I think, Clyde, there's going to be a lot of eyes on this because, first of all, because of the price, like Naomi Germer kind of played half fit for Chelsea. And the first time they concede a goal, everyone's going, oh, one million for her.

17:38You know, that's just how it works. But also, I think there's another context here about another young player that's coming to Arsenal. and I do think there'll be a lot of eyes on it because it's like, oh, will this be another Catherine Kuhl, another Rosa Kofagi, another Gio? Like, what's going to happen here? Do you have any qualms about maybe the pressure of the price tag and maybe some of the pressure on Arsenal actually making a young signing really, really stick for them? Yeah, I think this brings eyes onto the club so we can have a conversation around what we think about integration of young players a quiet conversation but i think the the watching world will be having that conversation if we don't find room for on the beach because we've invested a price and a number that says we brought here to play football for us you know and so that's very important you mentioned the word chelsea there tim there's another world where chelsea could have have this player themselves and that's not something i want to they bid for her earlier in the summer, I can tell you that for sure.

18:41They bid for her and it was short of Liverpool's valuation. I think from their point of view, they're looking more for a long-term Sam Kerr replacement and maybe they think the money's better there. But there is definitely a context where Chelsea were willing to pay good money for this player, certainly. Yeah, and when you have these sort of elite players, you'd expect that, wouldn't you? You'd expect some of the other top four teams to be involved if they're able to be. And so I don't want that discussion. you know, and to have because it'll be a tough one for us, right? And so I do think, though, because of the price and the investment, the eyes that are watching well will be on this, and we will have to do something.

19:20I think, coming back to what I said earlier, having that plan is really important. It seems quite clear to me. I don't think it's going to be a hard integration because we already play this way. We just need to do it, you know, and don't find reasons to not trust. You know, I think her ability speaks for itself. Her potential speaks for itself. and I just I think it'd be such a huge impact to the fans I'm an Emirates watcher team I don't travel away like you do that the Emirates I think have such a huge impact to um to the watching public seeing some more dynamism in wide areas coming I think it's going to be fantastic yeah definitely and I think it's easier to integrate a player out wide um Gio I think we kind of mismanaged her with her loan calling her back when I don't think we should have I also think that maybe someone who grew up variously in Madrid, Sao Paulo and Florida really liked the English weather that much as well.

20:17So there's some other context there. But I do think it's easier to develop a wide player because there are minutes there because you sub your wide players, basically. And I know right from the start, Jonas said that in his ideal game model, all three of the front three come off and are replaced, basically. And Arsenal, they've maybe been able to replace two of the front three, but maybe one of Beth or Caitlin has to keep trudging on or we have to play Russo as a 10. I think this gives us a front six, essentially. So there is that, but I know you've watched the player reasonably closely since that FA Cup game and since we discussed Arsenal's interest in her.

21:01What is it particularly that you see in her that perhaps we don't have in the squad and how she can fit into a René Slagas team? I think she has a directness in her play style. So when she receives the ball, she wants to go in behind you immediately. So I'm going there. I'm going to create the dance moves to get there. You know, these are the moves, and I'm going there really aggressively. There's a goal I think I saw score against Brighton where she literally ran around the fullback. Took her own, ran around her, took her into the box and finished. That sort of ability to create your own shot is excellent.

21:35You know, and the other examples of her having left foot shots, chopping inside from the right on her left foot. She's obviously got a clinical right foot shot from the edge of the area. She scored in-the-box goals. and she's quite small. I've not seen back post headers yet, Tim, but I'm not sure. She's not Lena Hertig. No, she's not Lena Hertig. But she has got a level of dynamism. Dynamism is a key bit for me. That's the key bit. I think there is room athletically in the women's game for another level and it will just happen naturally. I was watching France against the Lionesses this week. you can see an athletic profile of the game developing we had loads of conversations about the Leon home game and how we had to adapt and change to where that game was taking us we couldn't quite manage it but we managed it in the second leg by being far more aggressive and more compact the game is developing and it's important that we see that and and add those tools to our toolbox right now you know while we can while we're strong while we're one of the most well-watched teams in the world while we're the European champions while we have the commercial support and the club support to play at the Emirates this is the time to flex your muscles because we don't I'm sure Chelsea will right absolutely and the competition with Chelsea something else we talk about a lot you know you talked about that kind of pressing and stuff and when it's game for your life Champions League semi-final Champions League final you know the players can do it but can they do it every three days can the team do that every three days something we talk about a lot you know what happened after we went to leon kind of rotate the team at villar and get and get whooped and that stuff's got to change um as well but one of the things i'm quite interested in clive is i don't think i stand to be made a fool of here because um sometimes my life changes with the whatsapp message i i so i was never told of like a total clear out this summer or anything like that but you know there'd be some churn over the next three windows or so at the moment i don't think there is going to be a high level of churn of players that we have currently and on one hand you know it it doesn't look like we're going to get like a total revolution here at the same time and again like what happens in well what happens later this summer what happens in january what happens next summer it can all change um but i think one of the things that strikes me about the squad clive and particularly we've talked a lot about the midfield is the squad's actually quite big it's actually really big like numbers wise i don't think arsenal really have a problem it's maybe about deployment so you know some of those players who are on the bench quite a bit at the end of last season pull over cooney cross lotter laia kadina you know jenna nicewanger these are really good players these are international players but there's maybe a question about deployment and fit and it really makes me wonder for the upcoming season you know we're talking about like doing that every three days bit about deployment and maybe whether we'll see Rene really start to to kind of you know trust maybe or use some of those players a bit more with the whole season ahead of her yeah I mean we talk about this and well me and you do in particular and we say you know we need to make changes we need to make sure we protect people, you know, we've got to look after Fox, we've got to look after Leah, but when the team sheet comes out, I sort of want them to be there as well, you know, and I think it's important to not contradict yourself.

25:25I do think we have to start better next year so we feel that we can trust the other players to come in. We have five substitute rule now, so we can rest players during games. We have to trust people to play in the right back position. That's probably why Taylor Hines has come in, to play both fullbacks. So I think that trust needs to be in place. And I think it needs to be integrated in pre-season. And so just to make sure that we can have multiple competitions that we can attack. I think the Champions League obviously became the competition. And so we started to pick teams appropriately. But next season, I think people are, I don't want to talk for everybody, but I think people are expecting us to have a strong European campaign and a very strong WSL and domestic campaign.

26:12because that's what we all expect now. So to do that, you can't do that with 11 players. So we do need to trust the wider group. We do need to see Lotta play on occasion. I think it's a great shout. She needs to play more football full stop. Now she's got over her injuries. And we need to trust her to do it. And I think that would be much greater for the wider group. And what about the business done already, Clive? Chloe Kelly coming in, Taylor Hines coming in as well. But perhaps like age profile, I mean, they're both 27. They both came through Arsenal's Academy. They both left on the same day and came back the same week, more or less.

26:50But obviously, Chloe, we know a lot more about, not least because we had a try before you buy kind of six months. And then there's Taylor Hines, who I think there's loads of intrigue around that, particularly about there's already two left backs there, but maybe we're overweighted. It's a bit weird. When you look at it, we've kind of got three right wingers, if Olivia Smith comes in, which we're expecting her to do, and one left winger, and we've kind of got three left backs and one right back. So there's going to be some swapping there. What do you make of the whole summer so far? Yeah, Taylor Hunt's an interesting player, and she seems like a really solid progressive footballer.

27:31And I think given the fact that England have had a few issues at left back, I'm not sure why she's not been captured there. Maybe that's a miss by the country, but let's not go there. I don't know enough. But I do like the player and I think she'd be a good addition. I'm not quite sure yet, with my eye, how much time she plays on the right-hand side, but we know that's the position that we need to fix, really. Emily Fox, she's almost too good, right? And that's the problem. She's too good. You just want to pick her all the time. But if she picks up an injury, you'd feel like, why didn't we do something to protect her load?

28:06And I think that's very important that we do that. so who's going to play on the right-hand side to protect her? I'd be interested to see if we do change shapes, Tim. We know we talk about this a lot. It's an opportunity to go three at the back on occasions, particularly against some of the weaker oppositions, to make sure that our centre-backs who are lying dormant sometimes, not playing, have an opportunity to play in their best position rather than play, say, a Katie Reid out of right-back when she's really a centre-back. So I think that could be an option, just for different games. I'm so interested to see what Rene does.

28:38tactically because we know now we have a sample size that says when she fixes on a game she can produce a game plan to beat the opposition at the very highest level so how she looks at a league season with with her group with her players a bit more time and a bit more authority and how she deploys them I think it's gonna be so interesting next season so my mind is open mate yeah absolutely and I and I think there's you know we talk about the age profile of the squad I think there's a core of players in their mid-20s there that, you know, Arsenal really want to tie down to new contracts, players like Daphna, like Emily Fox, like Alessia Russo.

29:17I mean, just in like finally paying£1 million for a player like Olivia Smith, I guess, what does that say? Both to the players we have that we want to retain and make our, you know, almost like our new emerging leadership group. And I guess what it says to the rest of Europe and the watching world. Yeah, I saw a brief interview with Lauren Hemp today, and they asked her the question, what do you think about the signing? And she was very excited about it. They say it's great for the women's game. And I think it really is. I think it's a really positive step. It's saying that not every club wants to invest like this, Tim, on and off the pitch.

29:59You know, not everyone does. and you know more than I that Arsenal don't want to just be this club that's really producing commercially off the pitch on their own. They want to share best practice with other clubs. They want to bring other clubs along with them so they can create a similar community that's at the Emirates, for example. Because Arsenal sitting there on their own is no good for the overall game. We want the overall game to grow. So I think this is a really good thing for Arsenal, we care about Arsenal the most. I think it's a really good thing for the overall game which says, okay, this is a level of investment.

30:30but this level of money that's there, this will help attract the TV companies on bigger deals for all of us. You know, I think that's very, I think it's really, really key, which means all the young girls watching can have a proper career going forward with proper wages and proper professional environments for them. I think it's a really big step. Don't want to load too much on one transfer, but it's a signal for where the game is going and hoping other clubs will look at this and say, okay, we want to fill our stadiums. We want to grow a team. This is what we're going to have to do. Smart investment on the right young talents going forward.

31:06Yeah, absolutely. We're in a situation where Liverpool still haven't appointed a manager, although it looks like Gareth Taylor will go there. I mean, at the very least, Liverpool are getting a million pounds now, and it will be really interesting to see what they do with that this summer with a new manager coming in. I am certain if it's going to be Gareth Taylor, which it looks like it will. He's just come from Man City. I am certain he will say, I want to spend that. And they might not spend it on one player. They've got some work to do. And to be fair, Liverpool were the ones who put the money up for Olivia Smith last summer for 200k.

31:39That was a pretty big signing, albeit they didn't do a lot else. After that, they kind of spent the budget on that. But that gives them a bigger budget to improve with a new manager who's used to a really elite environment in Manchester City. So I'm really interested to see what they do. and like I said at the top they were very firm from the very beginning about the price for this and I think a lot of clubs tried to tempt them with offers below the price maybe we'll throw a player in and they were like nope it's a million pounds otherwise go away basically and and Clive Arsenal put that down I like you I'm I'm glad that they have particularly because I was slightly worried about oh if this drags on do we lose out potentially on other targets does this drag on all summer do we have another kira walsh where we put in a world record and and russo actually the last two world record bids have basically been on deadline day and may well maybe they're clive maybe arsenal i know they've done some work in the back room about their recruitment how they recruit Jonas during his time was very outspoken about how he didn't think it was good enough so yeah let's close on that maybe what this says about Arsenal not just throwing their weight around in the market but the fact they're doing it in early July two months before the beginning of the season and not doing the world record bid on deadline day yeah it shows the ambition it sends a message to the Russo's team we all want to sign a new contract again don't we at some point you know and it's very important and she's gonna be thinking okay I'm playing centre-four for England and I'm playing centre-four for Arsenal in the Champions League final and they've just broken the world transfer record.

33:22Where do I sign? Thank you very much. And that's what you want. You don't want people to be thinking about anything else because you're doing the right things in the right way at the right time and you're investing not just those younger players coming in's careers but the new leadership group which you've named, you know those names, we're saying to you, this is the place you need to be in the medium to long term because we are going to invest in putting the right players around you so you can reach your ambitions. That's the message that it sends to me. And for all of the shirt-wearing fans at the Emirates that are fitting out the armoury every time they play there and breaking commercial records, they're going to get what they want, which is an exciting team that's strong in the right areas.

34:04And I'm already looking forward to that Chelsea home game. I'm already looking forward to it. You know, he's going to be queuing around the block for that one. And so I'm really confident we can have a much more competitive go at them this season. yeah definitely and look the last Arsenal player that wore Smith on the back of her shirt turned out to be okay um and is isn't it in fact it's quite weird two of our signings this summer are called Kelly and Smith so um maybe there's this coded information in there but Clive really really valued that discussion nice to do it in a slightly slightly different kind of environment um yeah thanks thanks so much for coming on thank you very much enjoyed it Tim and that's it for this episode obviously we um jamie's covering uh the euros in switzerland so once the group stages end we will probably do a pod with jamie and make it a bit euros focused since she's been out there covering it and that will likely be um what's really going on and we'll be getting to the the kind of the latter stages of that maybe we'll talk about what that means for the arsenal players and etc etc so we'll probably come out with another episode reasonably soon and we'll get Jamie's reaction on Olivia Smith as well.

35:18Hopefully that does all go through now. I believe medical's booked. If that blows up, then this podcast will be consigned to the disaster bit of history, but I really hope it isn't. And we'll speak to you very soon. Thanks so much for downloading. Thanks so much for listening. And we will speak to you very, very soon.

36:10I'll see you next time. wherever you get your podcasts.