Episode 884 - It's all over for England

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0:41Hello and welcome to a brand new Arseblog Arsecast right here on Arseblog.com. How are you? I hope you're well. Thank you very much indeed, as always, for being here. So after, I don't know, a month, more or less, of football, we now know that the World Cup final will take place between Spain and Argentina. Spain too good for France on Tuesday night. And Argentina, I don't really know if it's right to say that they were too good for England as much as England were too bad for England, if that makes sense. I don't really think what we saw in that second half was commensurate with the kind of quality that England have available to them.

1:24But after scoring a goal and going ahead, they just sat back and then handed all the momentum to Argentina, who, as we know, do have quality. And when you give them the opportunity to demonstrate that they can hurt you, and they did hurt England last night. But I think England will look back on that second half with quite a lot of regrets. So we're going to talk about that game. We're going to talk about some of the Arsenal players. Obviously, there's a very worrying development with regards to William Saliba, who went down in the France game. And there are all kinds of issues with his back and an injury that might potentially require surgery.

2:00So what that means for Arsenal going into the new season, but Kai Osaka didn't even feature in a World Cup semifinal. So there's probably a worry there. Declan Rice, the final on Sunday, some of the transfer bits and bobs. That's what we're getting into today. And with me to do that this morning is Andrew Allen. Good morning, Andrew. Good morning. How are you? I'm very well. Not a great morning to be an Englishman, although you obviously have the Irish passport in your back pocket, you know, as a kind of fail safe. Yeah, yeah. And I should probably claim my Cypriot one as well at times like these, I think.

2:34Yeah, it was a very disappointing night for England, it has to be said. I mean, look, I will recognise that there will be people out there who are far more deeply disappointed by what happened last night than me. But at the same time, I think when you live in a country your entire life, it doesn't really matter kind of exactly where you fall on the scale. You kind of sense the hangover the morning after. Yeah. I've already been to the supermarket this morning and there's just a sort of stony look on a lot of people's faces, not to mention a few hangovers hanging around. Oh, I can imagine. I can imagine.

3:11And it was, you know, I guess the context of it or the way it happened will have exacerbated that disappointment. So, I mean, as a game, I have to say, as a neutral, right, I was sitting down last night, turning on my TV and looking for a feisty game of football. We know there's a lot of history between England and Argentina. And when it began, I was like, oh, this could be really, really testy. Because Argentina were, I think, trying to draw England into a particular kind of game. Diego Simeone's son was sort of running around like some kind of Tasmanian dust devil on PCP, just trying to get people to react to whatever it was he was doing.

4:00I mean, there were a lot of niggly fouls. There were a lot of stoppages in the game. And I think to England's credit, they would have expected that and did not really react to anything that was going on. There was one moment, I think, when I think Messi might have been fouled, maybe, in midfield. And the referee played on. And the Argentinian players were just sort of up in arms. Like, how could you not give us this free kick? and England, you know, sort of played on and carried on. And I think that was obviously the right way to approach that. But as a first half of football, it was more about the fouls than goals or goal-scoring chances or anything like that.

4:42Yeah, I mean, the first 10, 15 minutes were actually sort of hilarious, weren't they? It's just like a kind of pitch battle everywhere. I knew knowing coming on today that I was going to need to sort of pay attention. So I tried to write some notes and I just wrote after seven minutes, spicy, spicy, spicy. It was just everywhere. I mean, and I think obviously from an Argentina point of view, they probably looked at Jude Bellingham, who's, you know, got a temper on him and probably thought if we can really wind him up, that might be a quick and easy way to put England on the back foot. And as you say, I think England did pretty well at just kind of being po-faced and just kind of going, we're not getting drawn into this.

5:24Yeah. And that's not to say that they didn't get involved in those battles. I mean, there were plenty of fouls both sides. I mean, it was a scrappy affair. I think I saw Tim say something like it was a horrendous watch, but a kind of captivating watch all at the same time. There wasn't a huge amount of football. But yeah, as you say, I mean, I think Argentina carry themselves with the confidence of a team that have won this competition, right? And at no point last night did I massively feel like they were in panic mode. They had game plans for different moments in the game. And, you know, obviously that opening part, they didn't tease out of England what they may have wanted, but they certainly got there in the end.

6:09And, you know, I guess if you look at the team from an Arsenal perspective, like it was pretty depleted. You know, we've been used to seeing quite a lot of Arsenal players on the pitch. And I think the absence of Madaweke, the absence of Saka kind of, yeah, I guess raised a lot of questions. I suppose, you know, there's a Saka sidebar, which maybe we can get into in a few minutes. But maybe when you look at the kind of game England were expecting from Argentina, that Morgan Rodgers on the right hand side, which isn't really his position, but he adds a sort of physicality to England there. You know, he's a big guy.

6:47He wasn't shy about getting involved. You know, I thought Bellingham was kind of laughing off some of the challenges, which, you know, he would have been, I guess, advised to do. All the England players would have been advised, just don't take the bait. Do not take the bait. Don't do, you know, I'm sick to death, by the way, of just seeing celebrity cameos at every World Cup game that we see now. It's like, oh, look, who's that guy? I don't know who that is, but they're obviously a famous person. but David Beckham is one of those people that get shown on the screen all the time. And people of a certain age will remember in 98 and the way that he fell for, I think it was Diego Simeone, wasn't it?

7:24It was Diego Simeone, yeah. It was Diego Simeone. So, you know, there is a little bit of history there and you've got to learn your lessons from the past. But I think that was part of why England set up the way they did. The Saka sidebar, I suppose, from our perspective as Arsenal fans, is, like, I understand maybe why you want to not play Madueke after some of the performances that he's had in the World Cup, which I think have been quite indifferent. So I understand why you would want to do something different. The obvious choice, though, is Bakayo Saka. And if Bakayo Saka is not fit to start, or indeed even come on in a World Cup semifinal, I think it tells us a lot about where he is in terms of his fitness.

8:12And that's obviously, we'll come back to the England guy, but that's obviously a real worry, isn't it? Because listen, even if you could get 20 minutes out of Bakayo Saka, you surely put him on, particularly after the goal and the way the game went after that as a way of trying to change the dynamic of the game. Saka is a very obvious option to do that. And the fact that he wasn't involved at all is, I think, a real worry for us as Arsenal fans. Yeah, I mean, throughout the tournament, you know, if Maduweke has started, Saka has come on and done his thing and claimed assists along the way and just done that really efficiently.

8:49I am increasingly worried about what I'm hearing and seeing from an Arsenal perspective when it comes to these guys who've gone deep into the tournament. because obviously Saka's Achilles has been plaguing him for months and months. We've known that. And he's kind of steadfastly refused to go under any kind of, have any kind of procedure or operation or what have you. And I don't even know if that's strictly necessary or if he just needs a long, long break. But either way, clearly it's not going away or has not gone away so far. I hear that Rice is absolutely playing through the pain. And, you know, we're talking injections.

9:27We're talking all sorts of issues there and that, you know, he is on the verge of completely crocking himself as well. I mean, that's not a surprise, is it? Because throughout last season, even when we were pushing for the title and everybody was digging in, I think, you know, another element of this, I'm sure it'll come out in the wash. and I'm sure that the stories will emerge at some point that you have guys absolutely pushing themselves through the pain barrier, you know, chronic fatigue, injuries, mental fatigue, all of it. They push themselves to a really, really large extent to get it over the line for Arsenal.

10:09And Rice, you know, even in the last few weeks of the season when he was being interviewed, you know, would say, I'm exhausted I'm absolutely knackered but you know we go again and then he's there the next game and he's running around like a like a you know like the supreme athlete that he is but yeah I think you could see and have been able to see over the course of this tournament that that whatever amount of games he's played 60 games 65 games however many games it is and pretty much every minute of all of those games has has caught up with him yeah I mean I think the concern now is obviously you say, oh, well, you know, get yourself off to the beach and have yourself a holiday and all the rest of it.

10:49But it feels to me like they've traumatised their bodies so much, some of these players, over the course of the last, you know, 10 months or whatever it is, how long the season's been going on, even longer because they haven't really had a break between seasons at all over the last few years. Is that they really probably need a proper medical assessment from the Arsenal team now to figure out exactly what we do next steps-wise. I mean, I'm sure there's been ongoing dialogue between Arsenal and England and Arsenal and the players directly and all the rest of it. But it is a massive concern at this point, I think, how you deal with that.

11:24Because it's not like they're French players. I mean, they are literally the core group of players in the team. And we'll get on to Saliba in a bit. But yeah, it's a concern. And I think, you know, when I don't know whether that sort of fed in a little bit to Tuchel's thinking last night. I mean, the fact that he just, I don't know, with Declan in the middle of the park, he obviously ended up having to take him off with eight minutes to go. And I mean, it didn't go well. No, it didn't go well. But, you know, Rice was involved in England's goal, which came about 10 minutes into the first half, or second half, rather.

12:02Harry Kane played a ball forward from a midfield position. A point of discussion about him, I guess. But Rice was quick to anticipate the clearance, played a nice ball out to Morgan Rodgers. Rodgers plays it out or plays it across. Anthony Gordon runs off the back of the defender. I think it's Molina. That's a good finish. It's a really good goal to put England 1-0 up at a really good time of the game as well. Because after that first half, you're thinking, like, can anyone show that little bit of quality? And I think in that moment, England produced something. it's kind of remarkable then what what happened next yeah i mean it was the one piece of seriously incisive play that england put together throughout the entire game i felt yeah and they you know they took their chance and at that point you're thinking okay they're in a really really solid position um i messaged one of my arsenal whatsapp groups and you know about 10 minutes after that as england started to sort of sit deeper and deeper i was saying is this not the most arsenal performance you've ever really seen.

13:07We've been through this so many times, tight, tight games, struggling to really produce any clear, obvious ways of scoring, finally get the breakthrough, start to sort of sink into your shell a little bit. And then, you know, the difference being that Arsenal had the kind of discipline and the shape and the know-how to kind of quite often see things out. In this instance, I just don't really know what Tuchel was thinking. I mean, I get that there's a natural conservativeness that comes over players the moment you've got something to defend. But the substitutions, particularly, you know, at the second hydration break, really kind of put England on the back foot.

13:44Yeah. I mean, there is, and we've seen it, you know, a tendency for a team, once they've scored, to sort of sit back a bit. And it's kind of that thing, I think, of, right, we've got something, let's give nothing away for the next five or ten minutes. And I think you can live with that as a team and as a football fan. You can live with that. Now, Mikel Arteta was asked about it, has been asked about it more than once, hasn't he? Because it looks from the outside like something that when it keeps happening is something the manager is asking of his players. You know, we saw loads of times with Arsenal where we score and you're like, right, go again and get another goal and really stamp your authority on the game.

14:26It doesn't happen that the team sits back and all of a sudden you're camped across your own penalty area. And then it becomes really difficult to change that momentum. And Arteta has always said, it is not instruction. I do not ask the players to do that, but it just kind of happens. That's the way football goes. It ebbs and flows. I think what was most interesting to me was, you know, I'm firmly opposed to these ad breaks that are part of this World Cup. but but what it is is an unnatural break in the game which is something coaches and managers can use to their advantage you can make tactical shifts if the game is 45 minutes and the game should be 40 45 minutes each half should be 45 minutes without interruption you can still make changes you can still make tactical changes you can still make substitutions to to alter the dynamic of the game.

15:20In this instance, though, you have the ability to stop, to assess, to talk to your players, to give them instructions, to make whatever tactical changes you need, to make whatever substitutions you would like. And I found it like crazy, almost, that there was nothing different at all about the way England played after that hydration break. Sometimes we've seen games where team is on top, hydration break, ad break. You get the ad break and then the momentum of that game shifts because the team that's on top, they've worked hard to get there. And then all of a sudden their momentum is halted. Argentina just picked right back up where they left off and England sat, you know, increasingly deep and he made a change.

16:04He brought Esri Consa on for Anthony Gordon. So England had less of an outlet up front. They went to a back five.

16:15I don't know. It just was astonishing. It was the exact opposite of what you needed to do in that circumstance. As the game opens up, you want to be able to hit Argentina on the break, right? Yeah, exactly. And instead of having any runners, he decided to retreat the entire team to the edge of the box, allowing all of the space in front of the box where Messi picks up the ball or can do whatever to sling a ball into the box, which then means your defence is basically, I think Tim Vickery said, like bats hanging off the goalpost. Yeah. Which is like a brilliant description because that's pretty much where England were camped, you know.

16:47Yeah. And I think as well, you need an outlet. You know, you need somebody higher up the pitch. You need runners maybe, or you need somebody who can hold the ball up. Yeah. And I think in that sense, this is where I sort of have an issue with Harry Kane in that I think to some extent, it's not quite the same because it's not the same age. but I think the profile and the reliance or dependence, if that's the way to put it, England have on Harry Kane is something aligned with Cristiano Ronaldo at Portugal, where I think he is indulged a little bit too much and he sits deep and all of a sudden, rather than when you do get whatever bit of possession you have, or when you make a clearance, there is literally nobody up the pitch to hold the ball up and to allow whoever you've got who can run and listen, Whatever you think of Jed Spence or Rhys James, they're decent runners from wingback positions who could get forward if England had any way of holding that ball up.

17:43But I mean, the possession stats are crazy. 12.5 % from the time that Anthony Gordon scored to the time that Lataro Martinez scored the winning goal for Argentina. England had 12.5 % possession, which at this level of the game is, it's just unbelievable. And it's also very, very, very difficult to wrestle back that momentum once you allow that to happen. Like, you know, I think Argentina could clearly smell blood and there was a sort of inevitability, I think, about the equalizer. And they'd done it so many times in this tournament, you know, coming back very late on, using the momentum of a game just to completely kind of step on the neck of an opponent.

18:33Yeah, I mean, that's what you were saying about them, knowing that they can do it. But they've done it twice in this tournament and they did it again last night, that that is a sort of inherent belief that regardless of what the scoreline is, you are capable of seeing it out. And I don't really believe that England truly believed they could see it out. You know, I think the defensive quality, I didn't see the Mexico game. They obviously had a backs-to-the-wall performance there, but it's not quite the same when you're facing someone like Lionel Messi. Yeah, I think obviously the difference in that game was England went down to 10 men.

19:11And I think they realised that their opportunities in that game were going to be pretty limited. They had the lead. And also, to be honest, Mexico's plan was so one-dimensional. They were aiming at Raul Jimenez and that was it. Whereas with Argentina, they've got so many players who are dangerous in the box and the world's greatest player hovering around outside it, picking up the ball and swinging crosses into whoever he wanted. That was the major issue as far as I'm concerned. You left the best player in the world with all the time he wanted on the ball to do what he wanted to do. And he did it.

19:44And that was kind of the unforgivable bit, I think. Tactically, how did he get that so wrong, kind of allow that to happen? And reverting to the Azteca plan, if it had worked, everyone would be singing Tuchel's praises, probably, with a slight underlying concern about the fact that you've now tried that twice and that's your tactic and maybe technically you're not quite at the level. And sometimes you get away with that in international football. You know, we've seen Greece, for example, win the Euros in 2004 by having a very one-dimensional game plan of getting ahead and then trying to hold on to games.

20:27And, you know, Arsenal many times this season relied on that and good teams can do it. But the technical quality you lose when you take off James and Gordon to put on Konza and Byrne, and then you have Harry Kane hovering around the edge of the box and literally nobody to aim a pass forward to. Look, the writing, the writing was on the wall and everybody could see it. And you could look from someone who was sitting in a pub last night, surrounded by lots of people who probably don't watch that much football. Everybody could see it. Yeah. I mean, that is exactly it, isn't it? You know, if my wife who doesn't watch much football is like, why are they hanging back like that?

21:08I was watching at home and my wife was like, Argentina are going to score here. You know, what's going on? What are England doing here? Because he gambled. He rolled the dice on England being good enough to hold this Argentina team at arm's length, despite the fact that they were basically hammering on the door, not just knocking, hammering on the door. They'd hit the post. Pickford made at least one good save. There was another one. I think it saves from Kedas. Yeah. There was the save from Fernandes as well, wasn't there, in between his goal and the... Yeah. You know, and there was another one where they headed wide.

21:48You know, Argentina were really, really knocking on the door and it felt inevitable watching. But Tuchel gambled on the 1-0. And it's such a high-risk strategy, isn't it? Because if that goes wrong, you've got no way of getting back into that game. and you take Declan Rice off and you take Rhys James off and maybe there were injury issues with one of them and we've talked about Rice and what he's got left in the tank which is probably very little but like you say, you're putting on Dan Byrne and Nico O 'Reilly with all due respect to those guys this is not like Arsenal having a 1-0 lead with Timber, Saliba, Gabriel and Incapier across the back line and then you add a Moscara or a Calafuri or something like that, not to mention that the organisation of Arsenal's team's defensive organisation and understanding is far superior to England's.

22:44So making that gamble, taking Rice off, putting those two players on, and then within two or three minutes conceding the equalising goal, it just completely and utterly backfired. And I don't think England had any way of responding. Did Jordan Pickford need to make that save to give the corner away? That's a good question. Yeah. I mean, we see goalkeepers do it all the time. It's sort of one of those routine things that they do, even though they probably know the ball is going over the bar. They tip it over and then back themselves and back the defence to get organised. But from that resulting corner.

23:23You don't want the ball to dip, do you, at a kind of inopportune moment and then look like you didn't put your hand out. Like in the previous game. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I mean, yeah. I mean, he really got caught out in that one, didn't he? When the Norway guy just sort of slightly sliced his shot through the inside of him, didn't he? Yeah. Yeah, look, I mean, the writing was on the wall and it played out almost exactly as any script writer would, you know, want it to. Messi getting on the ball, knocking on the ball. And there was just so much time. I think the other thing with these ad break, hydration breaks is the way that you automatically add three minutes onto the end of a game and psychologically players who are trying to cling on to a lead or a draw or what have you the games are being extended to a point where i think the panic stations section of a game has been you know it's just elongated so you'll get i i i don't know whether the stats back this up but it feels like there's been a hell of a lot of goals after 90 minutes um throughout this tournament and a lot of those goals deep deep deep into stoppage time i mean games when we were you know 15 20 years ago rarely went past 93 94 minutes i think psychologically for some of these guys when you're looking at the clock and you're seeing 86 87 88 you're thinking okay we're nearly there we're nearly there but obviously then the games run to 100 minutes routinely now you know having already had an extra five minutes in the first half as well.

24:55So it's, you know, the legs are also going. These guys have been programmed to play 90-minute games and their experience in the pitch now is just getting bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger. You're factoring in the breaks. I mean, God knows, with the World Cup final and the idea of a half-hour break in the middle of that. We'll come to that. Yeah. Fuck me. Yeah. I mean, so I think there's lots of factors, but ultimately, Tuchel can't really hide behind any of those on this occasion because he made the big calls in the game. And he debated where his team played and who played it. Yeah. Yeah.

25:29So I don't know. It'll be really interesting to see if he comes out and explains his thinking. I'm already seeing reports saying the FA are backing him. I mean, he was, I think, signed a new contract before the tournament started. But yeah, England have a job on their hands, right? I mean, Kane might be around in a couple of years for the Euros, but the chances are he won't be hanging around for a World Cup in 2030. So, you know, their best player, their big goal scorer is someone they need to replace or find a way to replace. And that's going to, there's going to be a lot of soul searching going on there because there's not many strikers under 30.

26:06No, that's true. I mean, I will say that, you know, their best goal scorer, I'm not sure he's England's best player. No, maybe not. But that's a different, that's a different thing. I mean, listen. Max Dalman. Yeah, exactly. Enzo Fernandes scored the first goal. It's a hit from distance. I think England are caught too deep. I do question maybe how far across his goal Pickford was for that shot. Maybe just a step too much to the left-hand side. Chelsea, by the way, I don't know if you saw this, Chelsea put out a tweet. I did see this, yeah. Chelsea put out a tweet like, Enzo Fernandes with like an explosion.

26:46Firecracker, yeah. Firecracker explosion. the Chelsea FC account on Twitter put that out and then had to fairly quickly delete it, but not before the damage was done. I can imagine a particular cohort of Chelsea fans really didn't enjoy that. I mean, what on earth were they thinking? I mean, it's sort of very representative of the state of that club at the moment, I think. You can know it completely tone deaf. I can only assume that the admin was not English. Maybe. Or just a mischief maker. Yeah, maybe so. Yeah, not the cleverest thing. But then Chelsea don't do a lot of clever things these days.

27:27That's true. That's true. You saw Bellingham's reaction, obviously, to that ball going in the net. Yes. Yeah. Not one that will go down particularly well with the Pickford fan club, I don't think. No. He basically is, you can see him looking at the screen and sort of saying, it's down the middle of the goal. you know use your damn T-Rex arms yeah exactly listen you know he's an amazing player Jude Bellingham and obviously played a huge part in England getting to the semi-final and I say this as you know somebody who's going to talk about Leandro Trossard and I think they're not quite the same but both quite demanding in their way like they have standards and their competitive nature means that nobody is immune for from you know whatever little gripes that they might have but you know you can understand why Bellingham is a bit annoyed yeah I mean I look I think there are Bellingham's in lots of teams you know the guy who's particularly agitated when things don't go wrong and they struggle to keep their maybe emotions in check I was going to say that you know when Arteta came in at Arsenal he was very very big on the body language that the players used around each other and how they presented each other or to each other even in you know difficult moments and i do wonder how let's say if arteta was managing bellingham he would react to bellingham kind of castigating some of his teammates occasionally within those moments you know is that something that would look for or try to work out of his system because he recognizes that the team spirit as a whole needs to be yeah kind of one but you know if it's the equivalent of kappa though you know you've got the fans on your side you know what I mean yeah I mean look to be honest I it's hard to fault Bellingham I mean look in the moment right there when you're you've just basically thrown away a World Cup semi-final um you know I think you're allowed to feel what you feel and it's unfortunate you've got a million cameras on you kind of watching everything you say I did I did also enjoy him just sort of randomly clipping some Argentina light around the ear after the after to the final whistle and nearly starting a scrap.

29:38But, you know, that competitive nature manifests itself in many ways. The defending, again, for the second goal is not great. As you said, the big issue is Lionel Messi having time and space. As I said in the blog this morning, it's not so much a case that he's running the show because he doesn't really run these days. He can't really run these days. but the quality that he has, maybe you say England did all right. They pushed him out on his right foot, his weak foot, in inverted commas, but the cross is brilliant. It goes over John Stone's head. Konza is not there at the back post, and Martinez had some to make it 2-1.

30:21And listen, if it felt inevitable that England were going to concede the way they were playing and the way they failed to deal with the way they were playing, after it went 1-1, the winning goal felt just as inevitable, right? Yeah. I mean, I was looking at the team and I was thinking, even if they somehow hold on for extra time, I just don't see how they recoup from this. You know, it was such a blow to concede the equaliser. If anything, you know, sticking the knife in and, you know, killing England off was probably a small mercy because the idea of being dragged out for another half an hour of that, I think England really would have struggled at the time.

31:04Yeah, a horrible moment. It's incredible how quickly a pub can empty when you've watched people queue 45 minutes for a beer earlier in the evening. But that's handy, though. You can get yours much quicker then, you know? Get your final pint in. Yeah, it was, I mean, the post-mortem will go on for quite some time. um i don't know i was going to ask a question this is sort of a side because we've sort of got interest in this player but like what did you make of alvarez and how have you watched alvarez throughout the tournament like is there enough there that you think god i really want this guy in an arsenal shirt for 100 million quid because i i'm a bit undecided i mean obviously he scored a great goal in the last round yeah i like him i find it harder or increasingly more difficult to gauge the true value of a player these days.

32:03You know, strikers and top strikers are a rare breed. I have this sort of, I don't know if it's crazy theory. I look at some of the prices being paid. I look at Man City paying 116 million for Elliot Anderson. I look at them about to pay 100 million for Buati. And I sort of, the cynic in me thinks they're skewing the market deliberately. to make it more difficult for everybody else. That like, okay, well, if Arsenal want to bolster their squad, a comparable player to Elliot Anderson, I'm not saying Morgan Rodgers and him are the same or anything like it, but I would be extremely uncomfortable with Arsenal paying£116 million for Morgan Rodgers.

32:48But at the same time, I can understand why Aston Villa might say, well, he's got four years on his contract. He's an England international. if Nottingham Forest can get that for Elliot Anderson, why shouldn't we look for something at least in that ballpark for Morgan Rodgers, right? So it makes recruitment more difficult. Going back to your question about Alvarez,

33:14I like him. I think your reaction says it all, right? Yeah, I like him. Jumping up and down and going and saying, we've got to get this guy. No, but I mean, there's part of me as well is thinking, well, we've got Kai Havertz, We've got Victor Jocharez. I have... Got Marino. Yeah, we've got the greatest striker in the world right now in Mikel Marino as well. Like if Alvarez was another 10 goal a season player on top of what he usually gets, I'd be more comfortable with going all in for him. I just think like pretty much every deal we're pursuing this summer so far, apart from maybe Christos Solis, they're all complicated Gimaraes is complicated Rodgers is complicated Alvarez is complicated all for different reasons they're really difficult deals to get done I mean I think you can make a good case that someone like Julian Alvarez would bring quite a bit to Arsenal but then you you're going to have to make a decision on one of the other two I think I don't know how easy that is you know um so yeah I've been I like him fine the World Cup hasn't really changed my opinion on on him in a strong way where I'm thinking yeah we must go and get this guy particularly with the sort of Barcelona complication and his desire to go there and the the price that we pay you know yeah I mean that's something that's playing on my mind is how much do you want a guy who whose real preference would be to go to Barcelona yeah you know right and where does that leave you because if that desire is there now it's not going to disappear so you could move to Arsenal and still want to be a Barcelona player at some point yeah that kind of automatically kind of puts you in a in an interesting position I think with the fans so I mean best case scenario you sign him and he turns into Alexis Sanchez and you get two, three years out of him and he's versatile enough to play in various positions and he really adds something to the team.

35:25Worst case, you kind of get him and he's no better than what you've got and you're trying to squeeze him into the team and figure it out. I mean, I think he brings different things and certainly a bit more quality in the final third than technical quality in the final third than, let's say, Jokeres and Havertz is a different kind of player in that sense. I mean, maybe the more interesting question is for you, What does it tell you that if Arsenal are keen on Julian Alvarez, does it tell you something about the way that Mikel Arteta wants to reshape his squad or what he thinks of the current options available to him?

36:02It's a good question, isn't it? I mean, I sense that Arteta wants to play or certainly have habits as a very big midfield option, you know, in that creative space behind the attack, which he played him a few times last year. I think we all know that Jokeres is a battering ram and was good in certain scenarios, but ultimately didn't score in the big, big games. And look, he put an incredible shift. His availability was incredible. Arsenal won the league. I can't fault any of that. You know, I think when we signed him, I said we needed a guy who would basically make up the shortfall and the goals that we had the year before.

36:46and it was 15, 20 goals we needed. And he scored that. He did exactly what we needed him to do. But for me, that Arsenal team is technically pretty good across most of the positions. And it was a big, you couldn't ignore what your eyes were telling you. You can see that the guy up front didn't have the same technical quality as the guys behind him. And I think in games where keeping the ball is important, especially whether you're in the lead or not, it's a struggle if the ball keeps kind of bouncing off a player at the top of the pitch. So I can completely see why you'd want to add the technical quality of Alvarez.

37:29But physically, I don't know that he's, you know, he doesn't offer the same as what Jokeres does. And even Jokeres, with his big physicality, struggled in duels with opponents. So, yeah, I don't know. It's a tough one. I mean, the thing is, I keep thinking back to the days of, you know, peak Wenger when he would have four very different players up front in Henri, Bergkamp, Wiltord, Canu and it was, you know, you could throw one of them on for whatever particular game state you needed and they'd have the qualities between them to figure something out and I don't know whether necessarily those days are around anymore.

38:07Certainly you have to have players in different parts of their kind of career to be able to kind of tell them that you're going to spend a bit of time on the bench here and there. Slightly different as well in the sense that, you know, we don't play with two forwards. Like if Henry was a centre forward, Bergkamp playing behind him, it could be Cano. Wiltor could play off the right, as we know. I do think, personally, I think it's really interesting that there is, well, reportedly big interest in Julian Alvarez and adding him to the squad. I think it might well tell us something about how the squad could shape up or what Mikel Arteta wants to do with the squad, but it'll all come out.

38:44Not a lot of other names in that position being mentioned. That's true. It's kind of Alvarez or bust. Yeah, sort of he's the golden boy or the golden option for Mikel Arteta. Anyway, listen, England, soul-searching, recrimination. I'm sure Thomas Tuchel will be, who I think has managed England pretty well, you know, over the last few months and in this tournament. He got it really wrong last night. And it's rare to see a manager get it so wrong, like where, as you say, everybody's looking at it going, what's going on here? Maybe there's method to his madness and there might be an explanation. I don't think it helps that when he took the job, he kind of pointed at the passivity of Gareth Southgate's England team in those crunch moments and has ultimately, when faced with the same scenarios, seen his team.

39:40Yeah, do exactly that. Do exactly the same. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So he's identified a problem and then fallen for the same problem. Yikes. So, yeah. And in this case, probably even caused it himself. So, yeah, he's got some work on his, you know, he's got some work to do to win back the trust. I like him as a personality and clearly he knows football and I think he's an interesting man-manager and the players seem to like him, even though there's a bit of spikiness there. You don't mind that, though. You also do hear that, you know, he's a bit of a madman. You know, he's sort of super intense character.

40:16I can't remember what podcast I was listening to. It might have been one of the rest is football ones. I think whoever Lineker was talking to described Tuchel as 60 % genius and 40 % psychopath, which I think is quite good. Maybe you need to kind of operate like that, at the higher end of the game these days. I don't want to get on the wrong side of Mikel Arteta as well. Well, I'm not saying there's a 0 % psychopath to Mikel Arteta either. So let's be clear. Anyway, England go into a third, fourth place playoff or as it has been pathetically rebranded, the bronze final. Oh, really? The bronze final.

40:54Yeah, so they're going to play France. Listen, I think there'll be some changes. Players who haven't played for both nations will be, given an opportunity to play at the World Cup. I don't really care what England do or what France do in this one. William Salib obviously won't be playing. Declan Rice and Bakayo Saka, I want them strictly as observers to this game, not participants. I think that's the only thing I would ask of England. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I suspect Eze will get a game. You're looking at Oli Watkins and, I don't know, who's left to be fair with tony i didn't even realize he was in the bloody squad until he kind of basically came out of the last second last night um yeah i mean wrap the arsenal players up in cotton ball i think anyone who's played you know 4 000 plus minutes over the last nine ten months deserves a break yeah um they i doubt many of them will care too much for a bronze medal anyway um are they doing a half-time show for that one as well where they have kind of like lookalike performers of the guys who were doing the main one.

42:05Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Oh, fuck's sake. Anyway, we'll, we'll, we'll come to that. Cause I want to ask you about that, but. William Saliba, let's talk William Saliba, because we saw the other night he sat down on the pitch. There was nobody anywhere near him. Apparently, according to the lip readers, you could see him say, my back is gone. My back is gone. There are reports from L 'Equipe who were reporting last week. and I think we covered a bit on Arsblog News about how Saliba, his tournament was in doubt. So clearly they have been absolutely nursing him through this and have been cognizant of the fact that what happened to him could happen at any moment.

42:45And it happened. And apparently he told Upamecano that he couldn't bear the pain anymore, that he was, in inverted commas, dead was the reporting there. where the keep are saying Arsenal anticipate that if he requires surgery, he could miss four to five months. We don't know exactly what the problem is here, so we can't speculate on what the surgery might be. But clearly, you know, this is something they've been reporting in fairly open terms throughout the tournament. And then you realize that when they're talking that way about somebody, they're not going to make it out like it's a disaster while he's still able to play.

43:27But the more we now know and the fact that he can't play anymore, the truth is becoming a bit more obvious and a bit more distressing, I think, is maybe the right way that I would use it from an Arsenal perspective. Because William Saliba, as you say, and you talk about Declan Rice, we're talking about Bakayo Saka. There are some first name on the team sheet players for Arsenal, and he is unquestionably one of those. So if he is forced to miss a period of time, it's going to be a real blow, a real challenge for Mikel Arteta and for Arsenal. But this is another one where it really feels like the load and the burden that he has carried this season and previously has just finally caught up with him.

44:16Yeah, back injuries are a horrible thing, speaking from personal experience. And obviously, like you say, we don't know exactly what Saliba has done, but if he's, you know, if he has herniated a disc or if he has been suffering from back spasms or anything like that, the kind of the intense pain and the knock-on effects of those are just horrible. yeah I mean I imagine after the Champions League final Arteta and his team will have taken a few weeks off but then when they went back to the training ground they'll have been thinking pretty intensely about the state of the squad and there is clearly what we'd like to add to the team and then there is what we may have to add to the team to cover for the fact that we've run these guys into the ground And yeah, I mean, Saka, Saliba, Rice, I don't expect any of them to be starting the season.

45:12I'll be surprised if any of them are seen. Yeah. I mean, I think in Saliba's case, I think they're saying what, four to five months if you need to procedure. I mean, you're talking about him playing next year. January, yeah. Yeah. And they have to go and find someone who can cover a position. I mean, obviously it's a strange one with Arsenal because we've got guys who are right-sided defenders who could easily fill in their timber, Ben White, but their own fitness issues have been plaguing them for months on end.

45:48it's really really difficult because you no one's going to sell us a replacement cheap and then you've kind of got a guy who is coming in ostensibly to cover for someone who then may find themselves slightly I'm not going to say surplus to requirements but they you know they're playing behind William Saliba and Gabriel and they're probably the best defensive partnership in the entire world. And they're not going to have guaranteed game time going forward. So there's a sell there someone has to make. I mean, obviously wages will play a part in doing that. And also, you know, the fact that Arsenal are Arsenal and they're champions and it's London and all the rest of it.

46:26So there will be people interested in playing for Arsenal at the back, but that will inevitably come at the expense of spending big money elsewhere. I think it has to. I mean, it's pretty clear, I think, off the back of the spending spree last summer that there will be some balancing of the books going on. And I think it's already interesting that you're seeing one player go out before we do a deal, you know, potentially for solace, right? How comfortable would you be with, let's say, Christian Mosquera being the stand-in for William Saliba? I've seen names linked, Esri Kansa. I'm not saying it's quite Saka to Sterling, but there is a big drop-off there between William Saliba, who's one of the best central defenders in the world, which is, you know, it's inevitable that any player who comes in a second choice is going to be inferior in that regard.

47:17I've seen people talking about John Stones because he might be on a free, but I think his injury issues over the last couple of seasons, that's the last thing we need. Yeah, also his wages will be crazy. He's a guy who's been earning big money and becomes a free agent. He'll be in a position to command huge money. How old is he now? I mean, the way I look at it is why would Aston Villa sell us Esri Konza right now? Unless the money was absolutely crazy. You know, there's no benefit to them really kind of parting ways with a guy who's fundamental to their team. So I can see the logic in being linked with him because he's a decent player, but I don't see how that gets done from any practical perspective.

48:00Yeah. Look, there are gems out there. We found Mascara last year. Yeah. And I would be perfectly happy with him partnering Gabriel, but I would also want to know that there are some other players. There's got to be other bodies, right? Yeah. That's where we're a little bit short. And it kind of depends, I guess, in the next couple of weeks, how Timber and White and Califuri are looking on the fitness front, because they may think, well, let's just assess everybody before we make a big, big decision on this. We've obviously got to figure out exactly where Saliba situation, you know, lies. is he going to go under the knife?

48:37Does he just need a prolonged break? So I don't expect a deal for a defender to get done early. Would you see what I mean? Or if it is, it might be someone who, you know, maybe they'll push for a right back or a left back or something. And you could use Incapier alongside Gabriel, even though they're both left-footed. So Arsenal have got lots of versatile players, but I do think if you're going to miss Saliba for five months, you do need to bring someone in. No, I agree with that. I agree with that. I think, you know, in an ideal world, if you have Ben White and you have Christian Mosquera and you have Juri and Timber and they're all fit, you're probably pretty well covered because Timber can play centre half.

49:17Ben White, we know, can play centre half, hasn't really been used there. And whenever there's been that option for Michel Arteta, you know, to play Timber or White at centre half, he's always gone with Timber and Mosquera's there. but it's the fitness issues with White and Timber that obviously give you pause for thought, you know? And we genuinely, I mean, it really felt like White might be going out the door this summer as well, and that's still possible. You know, he may well want to take the next step in his career, and you have to look at the contract situations of these players, and if you allow them to, if you say, well, we're going to keep you for another year, but we're not going to offer you another deal, then suddenly the leverage that you have on the player going forward is going to be different, so they might start becoming a free agent and stuff.

50:01I would be disinclined to let Ben White go, to be honest. I think he proved towards the end of last season, didn't he? With a run of games in him, he was looking much more like the player that he can be. But there is a big question over his fitness. No, I agree. I agree with that. But he's got a contract till 2028 with an option for another year. So Arsenal, it's not like we're letting this guy leave for free. and maybe if he stays for another year and, you know, provides you with that cover. I don't know. I'm sure they're thinking about this internally. It is a big issue and it's going to be a big problem to be without William Saliba.

50:41Yeah, and look, we don't know that Declan Rice isn't in a similar situation. Well, that's it. I mean, Logan's been talking about, you know, neural pain down his legs and stuff. Again, it kind of speaks to a potential back issue. Again, shouldn't speculate. But like, you know, there are issues there. And I think, yeah, it does feel to me like we're going to have to do some patching up before we do some real kind of the big business that everybody would like us to do. All right. Well, the only business we've really done, obviously, is the goalkeeper. But Leandro Trossard's departure looks set to open the door for Christos Solis to come in from Club Bruges.

51:23I think the outpouring of goodwill towards Leandro Trossard is fantastic. You know, he's a player who came in, maybe people had their eyes elsewhere. They wanted the 100 million on Mudrick and all that kind of stuff. And people felt maybe at the time that we were settling for Leandro Trossard. it is probably one of the smartest bits of business that Arsene have done over the last number of years. He's been a fantastic player, a great servant, somebody who I think was raised the level, you know, scored some important goals, made some important goals. Yeah, I think only Saka has more goals and assists since Trossard joined, right?

52:11I mean, that really underlines just how fundamental a player he's been to the Arteta project. I've loved him since the first moment he came in. And, you know, I like that he's a kind of head down, hard work, let his feet do the talking, but still a bit grumpy, you know, as we well know, but scored some incredible goals. Really great finisher. Probably the most natural finisher we have in the entire squad, which very, very difficult to replace. The most two-footed player as well. You know, he could strike the ball really well with left and right foot. And some of those sort of fizzing goals across the goalkeeper with his left foot, you know, they stand out for me.

52:56I suppose the goal against West Ham last season is the one that people will absolutely remember him for. But that was such a crazy 20 minutes of football, you know, between the point that Mateus Fernandes drew that save from David Raya to the late equaliser being chalked off. It was, you know, some of the most hectic football I've ever seen. But that Trossard goal still sort of stands out. Yeah, I think I've seen people saying that I think in years to come, the Trossard goal will look and feel and be presented like the goal that won Arsenal the league, even though there was obviously a Haberts goal against Burnley that came a few days after.

53:33It felt like that was the moment. I mean, that was the moment for me when I thought we might get over the line. And, you know, I said on Blue Sky the other day, I literally burst into tears when Trossard scored. That's where we were as a fan base, I think, just teetering on the edge of a kind of emotional collapse. And, yeah, just special memories. Seems like a nice guy. Wish him all the best in Turkey. And I wouldn't be surprised if he does pretty well out there and actually probably ends up again back at another, you know, I can already see him playing quite a long career. The way he plays is, you know, even though he's 31, they've given him a four-year deal, but I can see him playing 35, 36.

54:16He seems like a fit guy. So, yeah, good luck to him. Thank you for the memories. Yeah, been a tremendous player for Arsenal. The Arsenal players who remain at the World Cup are all in the Spain squad. Mikel Moreno, as you mentioned, he's so hot right now as a striker. Martin Zubumendi, David Rai, obviously more peripheral in that sense. Yeah, I wonder kind of being part of a squad in this way, how that feels. Because if Spain do go on to win the tournament, Marino will rightly be kind of front and centre of any of the celebrations. But for those guys who literally don't even get on the pitch for a minute, where do you feel emotionally about your kind of attack to that success?

55:03I mean, clearly it's massive. And I'm sure that De La Fuente has been, you know, very big on the importance of having, you know, team spirit and the guys behind the scenes pushing the guys who are on the pitch and everybody understand that they have a role to play and all the rest of it. But I can't help but think there'll be a little bit of sort of, yeah, it won't quite feel the same. No, no, of course. As a player, you want to be on the pitch. You want to contribute with the ball at your feet, regardless of how much you help and support in the background and during training and all those kinds of things.

55:36I mean, a Mikel Moreno winner on Sunday would not surprise me in the slightest, I have to say. Where do you think the game's going to go? Who are you backing? I, who am I backing? I think Spain probably have the ability to control the game against Argentina in a way that England obviously didn't last night. the the other semi-final on on tuesday evening i thought they were i just thought they were really impressive and i know it kind of leaves people a little bit cold sometimes the way that they play but i it's so impressive because it's not easy to do it it's really not easy to play that way and when you look at a france side that had dembele and Mbappe and Barcola and Michael Olisse.

56:29Okay, they had Rabiot as well, so, you know, they handicapped themselves a little bit in that sense. But to completely nullify France, I don't think France played well. Individually, collectively, they were below par. But I think a big part of that is just how well Spain controlled it, and it's sort of... Yeah, psychologically I think Spain crushed them because they just went, we know what you can do, you can't have the ball. Yeah, exactly. You know, anytime there was any sort of, because I looked at the possession and I was going, is this going to be one of those where it's like 65-35 to Spain?

57:03It was like 50-50 possession in the game. But basically when Spain had it, they just strangled France. Didn't let them get near it. France would get the ball back, give it away again, and then they couldn't get the ball back for a while. And it stops you building any kind of attacking rhythm and momentum. And I think they're just so good at that, that I think they ought to have too much for Argentina. And I kind of hope that they do. You know, the Arsenal boys involved in the Spanish team, even if, you know, there's a couple of players on that Spanish team we're not that fond of. I would prefer to see them win it than Argentina.

57:41Yeah, I mean, I have to say, I think Rodri's been extraordinary. and he looks like a player who is going to be hitting top form coming into the new season, having had a lot of injury problems. Kukurea as well. Like what the fuck? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know he's a woolly prick, but Jesus, he was so good against. He looked good. I mean, there's been a few players in this tournament that have surprised me. I mean, Jed Spence's reputation has probably soared through the roof over the last few weeks because he's really looked quite impressive. I said to someone yesterday, it was like he was playing for Nottingham Forest against Martinelli.

58:13that basically the first time I ever heard of him. I'm not buying into it. I think he's one of those guys who's just kind of average, but he does everything at such top speed that when it comes off, it looks really impressive. That tackle in the box last night was – It worked for me, yeah. That tackle in the box last night, I will admit, was absolutely sensational. But I think he'll revert to the mean, and hopefully he does so in top and colours as well. I think he might leave. I think there's talk of him leaving, you know, intermittent on him and stuff. Okay, well, go for a new adventure then.

58:42get away from that place. The thing about the final on Sunday, beyond the fact that this is a very intriguing game of football is that it is going to be interrupted, not just by the ad breaks, but by a 30-minute halftime show. I wrote about this on the blog. I can't really disguise my contempt for this as, I don't want to say development, but as something that has been foisted upon the game by Gianni Infantino and his obsession with celebrity and fame and being seen with famous people and for those famous people to be sort of seen around him. You know, the last World Cup, the best he could do was that sprinkly salt meat wanker.

59:24Now he's gone full in on Madonna and Justin Bieber and Shakira and other people that he wants to be seen as this kind of entertainment impresario. But leaving aside my outright contempt for Gianni Infantino for all kinds of reasons, this is not good for the players to have a halftime break that is 30 minutes long. You know, they're conditioned. We've spent this entire podcast talking about players who have been put through the mill by club and by country, by a long, hard season, by the way the game is so physically intense and fast these days. Saliba's back is gone. Declan Rice is running on empty.

1:00:08But Kai Osaka can't even come on to play a game of football. There's got to be players on all sides who are really, really struggling. And all of a sudden, FIFA, against the laws of the game, by the way, halftime shall be no more than 15 minutes. That is a literal law of the game, are saying, fuck it. We'll have a party because this is what Gianni Infantino thinks the American audience wants. And there might be part of the American audience that go, great, this is like the NFL. We've got four quarters. We've got a halftime show. So the vast majority of American football fans that I know and that I interact with, you know, via Arseblog, via social media, think this is a big load of old bollocks.

1:00:47And I think it is dangerous for the welfare of the players that if you're sitting there for not 10, 15 minutes, 12 minutes, getting ready to go again, warming yourself up, half an hour, you go cold in half an hour after playing 45 minutes in what's likely to be some quite intense heat in New York, I think, on Sunday. it's absolute bullshit and I think we need to call it out like we've called out all the things that have been wrong in this world cup from the ad breaks to the the the Somalian referee to the Iranian team to the following Balagoon red card debacle the ticket prices the ticket prices the yeah all of it deserves to be called out time and time and time again I think Infantino Infantino is an absolute disgrace and it makes me sad to see arsene wenger sit behind him just sort of saying nothing when somebody who should know better and should have more respect for the game is just sort of there letting this wanker do whatever he wants yeah i mean my two pence on the halftime shows it's just embarrassing and wholly unnecessary yeah because if they wanted to have a whole load of stars on the pitch singing and dancing you could easily do it before the game at some point like a opening ceremony you know that's kind of like we saw in in budapest like it wasn't to my taste but i can kind of live with that more easily you know again i i turned my back on the killers while they were performing i was so kind of not incensed by it but i'm just kind of like as a fan who's getting ready for a final your focus is so much on what might happen in the game that to have your sort of mental state distracted by this kind of singing and dancing over here i just wasn't having any of it then i thought i'd have a halftime show i just presumably this is advertising right but even then like they the slots must be sold or the axe must be working in partnership with brands or something right because it must be about money because if it's not about money then it's just vanity and if well i think it's both i think it's both i think it's it's it is infantino's ginormous ego yeah and uh his desire to to turn fifa into a basically a money making i was going to say laundering machine but there's a bit of me that may well say that you know i wouldn't be surprised if someone came to him and said we want to do a half-time show like the super bowl and that person was very high up in the american government possibly in the white house possibly a president and infantina's gone oh okay you know we'll just do whatever you say because that's kind of been the way that these things have worked so far you know trump Trump says this, I'll just yes it and find a way to make it happen, like the Maligan situation.

1:03:45But the fact is, Trump is going to be there, I think, and he's going to be part of the trophy presentation, and he's going to stay on the pitch or the podium when the trophy is handed over, as was the case with the Club World Cup. He is putting himself front and centre of this whole situation. And Infantino is just this kind of sycophantic lackey who's kind of hanging around and has been for years with Trump now. Yeah. I mean, look, there is a global audience. Billions of people will be watching this. And I suspect most of them will be paying no attention to what's going on during the halftime show whatsoever because they just don't care.

1:04:28People won't care. Yeah. You know, they just will not care. And there's nothing that can happen in that halftime show from those performers that will win them any fans, I don't think. No, I don't think so. I don't think Justin Bieber is going to get any bigger because he's played the halftime show at the World Cup, particularly. So, I don't know. Let's see. I mean, as I say, I think it's embarrassing and unnecessary and wholly against it. And I hope that this, along with everything else that Infantino has done over the last few weeks, proves to be a nail in his coffin. you know somehow someone needs to get this guy out no it's really just desperately sad what's happening to the game that we all love well that's it that's it you know and this is why i keep talking about it because i think it is important we might be slightly powerless but you can turn your tv off for half an hour whether that registers on the tv ratings maybe it makes no difference in the grand scheme of things but i worry really that some of the developments or some of the things that Infantino has introduced will become just part of football going forward.

1:05:36And I just don't think that's right. I don't think we should have four quarters. We have two halves in football. Players are capable of playing 45 minutes a half. You know, I know, again, there is a scientific backing that when temperatures are extremely high, taking on water is really important. I remember the 94 World Cup when Ireland were playing in America and there was like, you know, they were trying to get water on the pitch and they weren't allowed and Jack Charlton was going fucking crazy. You know, we've come a bit of a way since then, but you don't need three minute ad breaks. And I just have a real fear that because basically everything he does goes unchecked, it becomes part of the game in, you know, beyond the World Cup.

1:06:20And I think that would be terrible for football. I really do. so yeah i mean look there's already lots of questions about what's going to happen in the in future editions of the world cup isn't there i mean the next one is already kind of being played in what three different continents because there's going to be opening games in south america to to sort of celebrate the centenary and then you've got spain and and portugal and morocco so and potentially 64 teams i mean why not just make everyone don't do any qualifiers cut out international games just get every team in the world can come and play a world cup in a gigantic fucking knockout every four years fucking wankers anyway anyway are you looking forward final question after sunday to the madness of silly season really kicking in from an arsehole perspective because surely surely, you know, with the World Cup to one side, you know, there's a gap to be filled.

1:07:20Nature abhors a vacuum. So in the absence of World Cup football, we're going to get a lot of here we go or here we nearly go when it comes to transfers. Yeah. I mean, I think I've been trying to keep a pretty calm head because it's just been such a lovely summer to enjoy the fact that we're champions. I think as this tournament's come to a head and the injury situation has looked a little bit sketchy. I'm starting to get a little bit more nervous about how the opening weeks of the season play out. But I guess there's a certain amount of just having to trust the process, right? We've heard a lot of names.

1:07:58I suspect there'll be quite a few other things that pop up out of the blue in the coming weeks. That's not me saying, because I know that's going to happen. I've got no idea, but I don't know. I mean, I don't get caught up in the transfer madness in the way that other people do. I don't care for it that much. I don't play fantasy football. It's not kind of like, I'm not sort of registering any of this kind of stuff. I'm kind of very focused on what does the squad look like when the season starts? What does the squad look like when the transfer window closes? What do we have to play with? And how the hell are we going to do what we need to do to retain the title?

1:08:36Yeah, it's going to be interesting. I mean, but for the time being, I just literally just trying to bask just a couple more weeks in the glory of being Premier League champions. And then I think as the preseason friendly start, things will ramp up and we'll just have to dive in as we always do on Ask Blog News. I've already killed one transfer by doing the draft confirmation to Jeremy Monger. So, Chris Monsolis, I apologize to you. You're done for as well, my friend. well we'll see about that we'll see about that it's going to be a load of fun isn't it that when we put out a team of 16 year olds in our first pre-season game and don't play pretty well there be people that's it i've had enough of this arteta guy he's gotta go that's the way it goes isn't it that's how pre-season happens i've already seen people calling for burt's head i'm not even joking i mean people go absolutely mad say i can't believe he's allowed these transfers to slip I think the one that sort of gave me pause for thought was when Chelsea made it clear that Alejandro Garnaccio was available for sale.

1:09:40I was like, put Berta in prison. Just put him in prison until the end of the transfer window. Arsenal, you must resist the temptation of signing a fucking cunt from Chelsea. And they haven't all been, but some of them definitely. I'll leave it to the listeners to work out which ones I'm referring to. We better leave it there, Andrew. Thank you very much. Thank you. Enjoy the rest of the summer.

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1:11:39Thank you very much indeed to Andrew. You can find him on Blue Sky. He is at aalansport.arseblog.com. That's aalansport.arseblog.com. So there you go. That is just about that for this week's show. The big game on Sunday. Spain versus Argentina. Everyone will be looking to see if the man with that magic left foot can do the business and help his country lift the World Cup. I am talking, of course, about Mikel Moreno, and we will find out in due course. Just a quick note, by the way, some people have been asking because Arsenal are playing in Dublin in August, and we are going to do a bit of a live podcast.

1:12:20However, it is in a small venue. It is nowhere near the capacity of Union Chapel or anything like that. So tickets are really, really limited. And we're going to put them on sale on Monday. And they will go on sale first to our Patreon members. So to have a chance of getting a ticket to this event, which will be myself and James, and I think Tim, Clive, and Elliot, you can sign up for Patreon right now if you're not already a member. It's patreon.com forward slash arseblog. That's patreon.com forward slash arseblog. $6 a month. And when the season begins again, the content ramps up and you get all this extra bonus stuff that you can listen to throughout the season.

1:13:01So patreon.com forward slash arseblog for that and to get a chance of having a ticket to the live event in Dublin. Right. I will leave it there for now. Take it easy, folks. We'll have an Arsecast Extra for you, I think, on Monday, but we'll confirm that over the weekend. As ever, thank you so much indeed for listening, for downloading, subscribing, and all the rest. Have yourselves a great weekend. And we will catch you on the next one. Until then, cheers. Bye-bye.

1:14:07It's time to so hard.