Albacete Upset Real Madrid

26:33Again, that guy who talks to me in the ear has to stop talking to me. It's just the bases in your head, Frank. It's really a nightmare. No, no, we are not two in my brain. I'm not sure there is one person in my brain, so two will be difficult. But really, I think, Stevie, if you have somebody, you watch the ball and you keep the guy, if you know exactly where your guy is, you're going to make sure that the guy doesn't get the ball. Well, that's what I think. And, of course, you need to have an eye on the ball. And we have to see that again. I think it's Kukurela who takes care of Saliba and maybe jump on his shoulder.

27:13So you agree with me then? A little bit agree. But you say the ball is more important than the opponent. It's what you say at first. When you started, you said the ball is more important than the opponent. Well, I didn't say that, actually. I disagree that way. I said the first thing. I said defensively, the ultimate goal is to win the header. That's what I said. The ultimate goal is to win the header. Someone was talking in his ear at that moment. If I may ask just a general question, both Stevie and Frank, and I think they can agree on this. When you see that back four of Chelsea, and you have Achim Pond and Fofana and Chalova in particular, I think we can all agree that this guy shouldn't be playing the ball out of the back and playing the ball to each other and trying to somehow keep possession of the ball.

28:04I have to imagine... That's where the corner came from, yeah. I have to imagine Mikel Arteta and the thousand assistant coaches that he has look at this and go, hey, let's just allow these guys to have the ball. Whenever they start passing to each other, they put some pressure on that and it's turnover and we're on the attack. And it happened regularly, especially in the first half. And they keep doing it. I don't understand it. And that is basic coaching. I don't know. It doesn't matter to me whether this is your first game or your 100th game. You see this and you tell your players, hey, enough of this.

28:36Put it over there and we'll fight for the ball over there. But apparently not. No, prevention is the best cure. That's the best way. Don't even let them have those set pieces. Well done. All right. Thank you so much, Frank. We'll let you go and deal with those voices in your head. We'll let you get back to them. That seems like a problem. You can see a lot more of Frank over on our YouTube channel, including extra time from yesterday. Today's edition will be up there too when you go and check it out.

29:20phone just match with your dedicated expert upload your docs and go live your life confident you're getting every dollar you deserve this is how taxes should be visit turbotax.com today to learn more real-time updates only in ios mobile app only available with turbo tax full service experts in round 17 of the bundesliga bayern munich went behind to calm but put three back on them with Gnabry, Kim and Karl scoring the goals to maintain the 11 point gap for Bayern at the top of the table. After the game our boys caught up with Vincent Kompany but first one of the goalscorers Serge Gnabry. Overall performance first, how do you assess it?

30:03What do you think were the strengths of this performance? Strengths were that we didn't give up even though I think in the first half we didn't play as clean as we can. Lost a lot of balls early so we didn't even properly had so many chances and then at the end of the day we were patient. I think we always know that sometime our quality is gonna shine through and it did today as well. Serge when I come home tonight or go into the bed I will start dreaming. I will dream about your goal. I want you to say you meant everything you did there. Put it in on the ground over the goalkeeper. Please let me have a good dream.

30:37First of all I need to see it as well because I haven't seen it yet. For sure I meant the first touch probably not as far as it went and then I just tried to put it into the middle somehow. As I said, I didn't even see it yet, so I have no idea how it went in. I just saw it in the back of the net and was very happy about it. So you're saying you didn't try to get on the ground and over the goalkeeper? It happened so fast. I don't know what I did. I like that. I like that. I can keep on dreaming. Thank you. Are you playing with a cold? Yeah, it was a little bit, how do I say, I had a cold a couple of days ago, so it's very cold in Germany, so I'm sorry for coughing.

31:12That's okay. I mean, to be honest, it makes the goal and performance even more remarkable, Serge. No, I'm good. I'm good. Not that bad. All right. Fine. We'll put it somewhere in the middle. You spoke about the cleanness of the first half. What do you mean when you say cleanness? Can you just explain that? I think we just try to force it a little bit early to go through on goal instead of just keep playing, keep playing, switch in sides, and eventually it will open up. That's what I mean by the cleanness. And I think over the course of the game, we know our The moment's going to come when we are clean.

31:42If we are clean, we score our goals. Just a final word. Min Jae Kim. He's not somebody who, I would say, such is the way that, you know, defenders don't always get the headlines that attacking players do. For him to score the goal that goes ahead, for him to be the one who stops that counter-attacking chance, what do you have to say about him? He's brilliant whenever he plays. He's brilliant, great character, great guy. Everyone in the team loves him. And if he performs like today, you know, It's good to have him on the pitch in a team and I'm sure for himself, even though he probably doesn't show it always, it means a lot to have scored a goal.

32:17And he meant it. He meant it. He meant that one. Vincent, when it comes to the performance tonight, what's your assessment of it? Job done, composure in the face of adversity? It was a fight.

32:36I'll put it this way, if I was still playing I would have loved to play in this game, but from the side it's a different story because they did everything we thought they would do and they do it really well. They score goals, they have players who can be dangerous, so it's not a team that is fighting for survival without scoring, they are scoring. But I think we got our chances out of the right situations, set pieces. I think we score on a counter as well. And we were defending, but without being passive. We were always looking to get out, to counter, to be dangerous. And then I think our team is always able to score one or two more goals.

33:12And this is what I'm proud of the guys. I'm happy with this win. You win against Wolfsburg at home with so much possession and so much football. Today you win like this. It's part of the season. And Gaffa, I see you there at the end where you're standing here and you're saying you know the coach, but you're still in the 94th minute. You are time up and you want to talk to the referee. Is that a symbol of your hunger in this team and your hunger? No, but I have to remind myself as well. You know, if I'm demanding of the players every single time in training and this and that, then we can't give away a minute.

33:45We can't give away anything in the game. So I try and push and I try and make sure that, you know, sometimes, I don't know, we were leading 8-1 against Wolfsburg. I like to see the team just continuing, forget about when we are in the game, who we play next. And the team does it at the moment. It's not always possible to be successful with it, but it's a nice idea for me, for our team, I think. There appears to be a competition in your team as to who can score the goal from the tightest angle this season. Luis Diaz against Union Berlin was something, but Serge was also with quite a contender this evening.

34:19Yeah, I thought he crossed from where I was. It was a good cross. Oh, he did it on purpose. No, he did it. Perfect. Totally right. But why he chose the option, only he knows it. And obviously, it's this type of moment you need because I think we had one really big chance with Ito before that and a couple of moments, the last pass wasn't great. And then you need these players who can just give you something. And Serge didn't play against Wolfsburg, but today he played an important role. Gaffa, if I can ask, you have five teenagers on the bench. What does that say about the club just right now? Yeah, I think the story from these guys is interesting because they've been with us for nearly a year.

35:01So people see them now on the bench, but they've trained for six months first with us, then three, four months later, they're sort of having a bit of a slow integration. Everybody will have a different journey, you know, with young players. Some players will probably be for us straight away. Some players will need to go and get experience. But, you know, the story of Leonard Kyle is a positive one for us. and it's part of the things. And we have players on loan who are doing really well, by the way, so we're always keeping an eye on this. It's part of, we can, and I'm speaking now for Max and Christoph, my sporting there, but I'm repeating their words.

35:38It's like probably we can compete for some players, but for the squad, we need a balance with some of our own young players and we need a plan for that. It takes time, but we try and implement it. Vincent, thank you. Thank you. So here is the table. We did hear from Serge Gnabry. He said he didn't really know what happened, but he did mean it. He was pretty honest in his assessment afterwards. He didn't know what happened. He meant it. How do you mean it? He meant to score, but he said he'd need to see it back because he just kind of went for it. Yeah, so he didn't know what was going on. I 100 % mean this.

36:13It's over! It's been over. Oh, it is over, but today, as we were saying on the coverage, Ali, there was that little bit of a scare for them. just a little bit against Colm, they had that little bit of a test that they need right now to keep them honest. I think what it does is that it allows Vincent Kompany to go back to the training facility and say, hey, listen, when we are less than our best, these things can happen. So this is our standard. We have to be able to meet our standards consistently all the time. Now, that's easier said than done because this is a team that just destroyed Wolfsburg 8-1 over the weekend.

36:51So it would be easy to expect a drop-off. It's impossible to maintain that sort of level and that sort of dynamic movement and explosion and efficiency and effectiveness and level of interest, really. To be honest with you, some of these gains for Bayern Munich are not really all that interesting. And so it really depends on the individual, on the group, on the culture, on the identity, on the energy level in training, the intensity level in training, what the manager says, what the assistant coaches are able to say, what the leadership group, if you have such a thing, in the locker room is able to communicate with younger players.

37:29All of those things come together and they seem to be coming together in the right manner for Bayern Munich. But there's no question that if they're thinking about bigger goals this season, they're going to have to hold themselves accountable because nobody else in Bundesliga is holding them accountable. So how do you do that, Stevie? We talked about this with PSG, didn't we, in the season when they were running away with it. How do you stay competitive for the Champions League? How do you stay? What he's asking, what he's talked with the boys about there, like so focused in every game. Well, to be honest, Ali's just covered it, really.

38:00You know, it usually ends up me and you. It's on this show when it happens. Sometimes as a coach, things fall in your lap. And you're like, thank you for that. Because I'm just going to repeat what Ali said. He can now go back and say, right, this is what happened when we didn't do the basics at a certain level that we expect. and that is what keeps them on their toes. Because if there's not any of that, then you're scratching around as a coach. How do I keep them on their toes? How do I do it? Sometimes little things fall in your lap like that. So that's basically how he's doing it right now.

38:39Save money and get a better view of the road when you replace your worn-out wiper blades at O 'Reilly Auto Parts. Right now, save$10 on a pair of Rain-X Latitude wiper blades. They feature beam blade technology to improve windshield contact for maximum visibility. The professional parts people will even install your new wiper blades for free. Choose Rain-X Latitude wiper blades at your local O 'Reilly Auto Parts store or online at OReillyAuto.com. Okay, Africa Cup of Nations, semi-final time. We're going to start here with Nigeria against Morocco. 79th minute. Hakimi shot blocked by Bassey for a possible handball here but the referee doesn't give it.

39:20I'm okay with that. I mean his arms right by his side and it hits him. I mean what's he supposed to do there? I think that's a good call. So this would end up finishing nil-nil so it goes to penalties. Fourth penalty kick for Nigeria when Morocco are up 3-2 would be saved. Bono was standing there. Obviously the penalty takers did not see him, did not care. And then it would be sealed, the deal for Morocco here to win and advance to the finals. This is how things are looking in terms of match that's in this game. It went to penalties. Colin Udo is with us as well to talk more about what we saw here.

40:04Oh no, Colin's going to go. I thought he'd be crying. Oh, no, no, no. It's a Nigeria jersey there. Sorry, Colin. Sorry. Yeah. It was painful. It hurt. But here's the thing. You know, going into this tournament, I did not believe this Nigeria team were capable of doing, of going this far. And I said it when I was talking to our guys over at ESPN UK that I thought that, you know, I did not trust this team because there's been so much disappointment from them. in the run-up to this tournament with the Afghan qualifier, the World Cup qualifier, and then losing those penalty kicks to DRC. But when this tournament started, it looked like there was a complete flip switch or switch flip with them.

40:52They played great football. They won their group games at the canter, scored the most goals at any Afghan ever with 14, and they're actually chasing the record for 16 held by Ivory, because no other Nigeria team has scored as many goals as this team has scored. The last one in 2000 was 12 goals. And then they've dominated every team they've played against by possession margin of 60 to 40. I'll shot them in double figures. And they've won their games convincingly and played the kind of football that every Nigerian was proud to associate with. And so at that point, I really was proud of them. And I was rooting for them and hoping that they would get, you know, this win against Morocco.

41:27And when you see this game, they were good. They played well. It wasn't up to the standard level they've played in previous games. but this was a great performance nonetheless. They were missing a captain Wilfred Ndidi but this team did great and this game went to penalties against the team that one would say is the top two teams in this tournament. This should have been the final and so I'm not really that I mean I'm disappointed in Nigeria to make it to the final but I'm not disappointed in the way and I'm really proud of this team. I thought you had to say there Stevie did you want to ask Colin a question?

41:59No? I didn't get the swept fletch of the flip switch. You were so cheeky. What does this mean for Morocco, Colin? Well, it means they go to the final. They're going to compete for the title on home soil against Senegal, who have been to... This is their third final in four AFCON tournaments, so that's going to be a cracker of a game. But I think, look, Morocco have had a phenomenal time in the last few years. They have not lost at home in, what, some 30-odd matches. They got to the World Cup semifinal last time. And then, you know, they've got some great facilities. They're almost showing the way for Africa.

42:41So if they do win this, this would be a great reward for everything Morocco has done, hosting tournaments, hosting Cadet World Cups, hosting Africa to what is arguably one of the best nations, Afghans ever. Great pitches and some really, really good fans. So I think, you know, look, on the balance of things and the way they've played at this tournament, Morocco deserves to be in the final. And if they win, I don't think anybody's going to complain about that. OK, so you mentioned Senegal. So let's see how their semifinal played out against Egypt. Colin's taking this really well. Too well, I would say.

43:17Yeah, it's been realistic. Mo Salah and Sadio Mane reunited here ahead of the game. 17th minute, Khalidou Koulibaly is going to foul Omar Mamouche. gets a yellow which means he would be suspended for the final. He did actually limp off early anyway so which we'll find out here in the 22nd minute. Yeah, so either way. That's a big loss in the final. 78th minute. Lamin Kamara shot blocked, rebound falls to Sadio Mane 1-0. A little bit of fortune as this ball just bounces to him but the first touch sets everything up from Sadio Mane who hits it on the short hop in between the legs of the defender, goalkeeper cannot react on time why not?

44:0395th minute and this was about it in terms of threat from Egypt, Omar Mamouche with a shot there that gets saved Yeah they were pretty limp going forward, I mean I think that was the first shot in target in the game Yeah, you just saw Mohamed Salah there Senegal through to the final as mentioned to take on Morocco Colin, Mohamed Salah not a single shot or chance created for a teammate.

44:30In Egypt, to be honest, Egypt, the Ferros are African football royalty, but they go into an Afghan semifinal, which they haven't lost prior to in 42 years. And they play like bottom of the barrel play bands. Like you want to see Egypt go out there and go toe to toe with Senegal. But they were disappointed. They sat back for most of the game in a low block. It wasn't until Senegal scored that goal that Egypt even gave the appearance of trying to score. They didn't get a shot on goal until, what, 84 minutes? And Salah created practically nothing for himself or his teammates. And so, like I said, it was a really disappointing performance from Egypt.

45:10And you know what? I think there should be Mohamed Hassan has got to look at himself and ask if he really could have done better. because when they actually did try to play, they put Senegal under pressure for the last few minutes of the game. So the question then becomes, why not go all at it from the very beginning? Colin is angrier about Egypt than he is about Nigeria. He's trying to control himself. Well, I'm disappointed for that because they didn't come out to play. Like, you are Egypt. Come out and play football. You've got Mohamed Salah, you've got Mamouche. You know, show that you can play some football.

45:44Senegal reaching at the showpiece, though. Deserved, Colin? Oh, very well deserved. Look, right from the get-go, I think I picked the top three teams I picked going into this semifinal were Senegal at the top, Nigeria second, and Morocco third. And so it's good to see that the top three teams at least made a show of improving themselves. And right now, I think Senegal deserve to go through. They kept it. They plugged away. They pushed Egypt all the way. And they deservedly got that goal. And Sadio Mane got a second one over Egypt for the second time. Remember in 2021, they beat Egypt on penalties to become champions.

46:19for Mohamed Salah, the wait to become an African champion goes on. And I think it's sad for him because when you're an Egypt superstar, the expectation is that you deliver a Nations Cup title to Egypt. And unfortunately for Salah, he hasn't been able to do that. He's 31 now. By the time the next Afghan rolls around, he's going to be 33 and probably wouldn't be as much of a factor as, you know, he has been in previous years. So I guess maybe the only silver lining for him is that you have two Afghans back to back, 2027 and 2028, before he goes into a four-year cycle. But whether he's going to be as influential or as effective as he has been in the past when those two come roll around, I'm not so sure.

47:00So I won't be surprised to see Mohamed Salah announce his retirement after the World Cup. So Colin, it is Senegal-Morocco in the final. Who have you got? It's a tough call, to be honest. Morocco have got the crowd backing there. I mean, that stadium was jumping today They had everything that Morocco did. And you've got to think that, you know, the omens are the style that align perfectly for them to go ahead and win. I think their second title, I'm not mistaken. But Senegal, Senegal are really good. They are composed, they are organized. They can hurt you in multiple ways. And so I'm going to go against the grain here and go with Senegal.

47:38OK, lovely stuff. Thank you so much for being with us, Colin. And we're sorry, commiserations from all of us here at ESPN FC. Tell us about the jersey, though. When's this one from? This one is from the 2013 Afghan winning team, Afghan winning title in South Africa. As you can see, it's signed by all of the players from that team. So, yeah, it's a special one. Good thing you said. Happy at times. Good thing you said. It still fits, Colin. Still fits. Yeah, you got me on that one. You got me on that one. I'll get you back. That's a win. That's a win. There you go. There's one win for you today, Colin.

48:12And the boys have been relatively tame and kind to you too. that's definitely a win on this panel. There's got to be, otherwise I'm coming after them. We'll be waiting. Colin, thanks so much for joining us. Stay up to date with everything that's going on in the world of football on ESPN FC. We are with you every single day.

48:33Chris Richards has won the US Men's National Team Player of the Year vote, and by some distance as well, beating out Malik Tillman and Alex Freeman. He found out on the Pat McAfee Show. It means the world to me. I think people, as a defender, people tend to say it's a lot of pressure, but I think pressure builds diamonds. And that's something that with this team, with this country, we're Americans, we like to win. We like to scrap, we like to fight. And that's exactly what we're going to do in the summer. And hopefully by the end of it, we're holding a big trophy. Nice stuff. There'll be more about that on Football America's Thursday's edition.

49:06No Ali Moreno. Well, hopefully you got Big Shaq. We do have Big Shaq. 8.30 p.m. Eastern. Join Alexis Herc and Big Shaq. In the Serie A, we saw more games today. Napoli and Parma played out a 0-0 draw, but Inter did get a win. Pio Esposito, the only goal of the game. Inter sitting at the top of the table ahead of Milan playing their game tomorrow. We'll try and close that gap somewhat. Gabin Jules will be talking about it on the latest Gabin Jules show. Check that out wherever you get your podcasts.

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51:35Stevie and Ali here to answer your questions today. Let's get to them. First, Manchester United getting knocked out of the FA Cup. Then Paris beating PSG. Hearts top the Scottish League still. Alba Sete, who are 17th in the Spanish second division, have knocked Real Madrid out of the Copa del Rey. Is this the year of giants falling? You can't argue so far, can you? Yes, but the premise of giants falling comes up short when the first team that you mentioned is Manchester United. Yeah, that's true. They've been Giants for a while. They've been Minos for a while. I understand the concept of the question, but Manchester United cannot be included in that question.

52:22Do we fancy it or do we just like to see it and then we still want big teams in the finals? What do you think? Do we like the magic of the cup to go all the way to the end? Yeah, absolutely. No, yeah, I'm for that, yeah. Yeah, I'm not for that. Look, it's a great story, it's cute and whatever, but nobody, unless you're an Albacete fan, are saying, yeah, let's ride this team all the way to the final. And we'll be covering this final. And if Albacete are there, I guess we got to be excited about it and we'll follow the story and it'll be great to tell people about where this team has come from. But the truth of the matter is, you'd rather, at least in my estimation, rather see the best team.

53:03I'd like to see the best sort of cute story up to a point. In the final, I want the best of the best. No romance there, Stevie. No romance, Stevie. Out of stone. I know. We're sending you to Macclesfield anyway to cover the game. I thought Vole was sat next to me for a minute. All right. We didn't have to make it personal. I don't want to say it. Wow. That's... I got personal. That's below the belt. Hey, that hurt. That's below the belt. It's like we have standards. You've gone below the standards. Ale, who will Real Madrid scapegoat next?

53:35Well, you're going to start with Albelloa now.

53:40You got to look at the players. The players. See, you win and lose with the players. And I think Vinny is going to be at the top of that list because he has been the one sort of kind of, just by his demonstrations and gesturing and all of this, it felt like he was the number one against Xavi Alonso. Maybe that's the case, maybe that's not, but it's what we see from the outside. So there's going to be pressure on him to perform at a high level. All this sort of malcontent, if you will, that the players did not quite agree with whatever Xavi Alonso was doing, they're next. Because Xavi Alonso is no longer the excuse, so now it's on the players.

54:29Okay, Stevie, is it time for Ange Ball at Real Madrid? Oh boy.

54:40Not quite yet, no. No. Are you sure? What's it going to take? Might as well try something new. No. No, you're not. Robbo and Stevie were particularly unimpressed with the Zubimendi signing when it first happened. too lightweight, doesn't play forward, etc. Five months into the season, what's Stevie's thoughts on the player now? Absolutely wrong. Yeah, I mean, my real problem I thought he would have would be the physical side, you know, getting around. Not so much making challenges, but, you know, the pace of the game and getting around. That was my real worry. But he has shown that, you know what, if you can't get around then if you read the game and use your football brain then that's how you deal with it so I was absolutely wrong he's been absolutely outstanding he's actually now scoring goals never mind just sitting in front of the back four and yeah all those things that I thought he would struggle with he has used his football brain his decision making his starting position cutting things out, getting the team going Yeah Yeah Sometimes you're wrong And sometimes you've got to Hold your hand up And say you were wrong Thanks It's just growth And maturation It really is It really is You've come so far Love to see it It's only because I look stupid I don't know I don't think Robbo Would concede Quayton But we can't ask him Because he's not here Okay Even though he Probably would know inside He just wouldn't admit it And would find a reason That's what I think Okay Have you ever been around a team where a single player or group of players have as much influence as there exists at Madrid?

56:28This is for both of you.

56:35Yeah, but not in that way. No, I would say more in a positive way. Right. Yeah. So never in the negative way. Not in the negative way, no. The positive way, 100%. Yeah. so what's the best way it can go when you have that much influence in a positive way, what happens then what's the difference, why can't Real Madrid be doing this in a positive way I'm talking about three players and again I'm Scottish, I'm going to be advised but Liverpool's glory years there were three Scotsmen at the heart of it Hanson, Souness and Dalglish right out of the middle and so everybody followed them everybody fed off them and what they did was brought young players like myself, Ronnie Whelan, Ian Rush, I mean, Ian Rush, half of his goals are from Kenny Dalglish.

57:29So then what happens is everybody grows and gets better playing alongside them, but then on the days that are few and far between for guys like that, where they're not quite at it, because of what they've done, then we take over. for those moments that they're not quite there. So that's the influence these guys have. Think so that we can speak in terms of the players that are in front of us and we can have a conversation about Barcelona and Real Madrid and the contrast. And we're actually going to go to two Brazilian players. If you put Rafinha and Vinny Jr. side by side, right, as players, you're saying Vinny is a better player than Rafinha.

58:15skill-wise, his skill set. He has more to his game in terms of the skill set than, say, for example, Rafinha. And think about the trajectory of the careers of both of these players, where Rafinha was on his way out of Barcelona, was not wanted. They wanted Nico Williams. They were looking for somebody else. He wasn't going to be the guy. So he has every reason to be upset about the Barcelona board, coaches, whoever was making decisions, fans that were pushing him out. And yet he has been able to take all of that and turn it into a positive to where he is now the leader of the team, team captain, surrounding himself with players that support him and he supports the player, leading the team by example, going and pressing the ball, chasing players and chasing Vinny Jr.

59:09as he did in the Supercopa de España. And so you see that and then contrast it to the other player, in this case, Vinny, and you kind of go, he's not better than him, and yet he is getting so much more out of what he has available than this guy is. And a lot of it has to do with attitude, with mindset, with heart, with soul, with the fact that the guys around you want to be around you. The guys want to support you. They want to build a stage from where you can perform. Whereas this guy over here is like, well, it's either my stage or it's nobody else's stage. And so, again, those are things that we can see right in front of us.

59:51And you can see positive influence and negative influence. I don't know if that's the way that it plays out in the locker room, but it's certainly the way that we perceive it from the outside. And there's different ways of answering that question as well. A team in MLS years ago, Miami Fusion. was all about one guy, Carlos Valderrama, who was sensational as a footballer. Absolutely sensational. But the problem was, the team was built so much around him that if he had an off day, then there was nothing. Right? Valderrama. If he was on, they'd beat teams 3-4-0. But if he wasn't on it, or was ill, or wasn't there, then they almost didn't know where to go.

1:00:42right so it goes both ways it goes so many different ways have you yeah we've asked that one apart from changing ownership management and coaching staff what else does Manchester United need to do to get back to the top turn the lights out and don't come back well yep swap the flitch flip the switch what was it called is it switch the flip swap the flitch no flip the switch oh it it's a lot Apart from, that's a belt. It's a lot. And I don't know what, the other thing that they have going against them is that the other teams are not standing still. Right? You're not just competing against yourself, which already seems to be an issue for Manchester United.

1:01:30Other teams, they have taken jumps and leaps over you and they are leaving you behind while you're still trying to figure out what you are. so not only do you have to get yourself right you have to hope that other teams come back down to your level and that then somehow you're able to close that gap and then you can compete consistently it's a lot of things that need to happen the biggest thing that has to change is whoever's in charge of recruitment you know Man United off the field are always going to be a giant and they're always going to make as much money as anybody else for the foreseeable future Yeah, the commercial monster.

1:02:09Yeah, commercially, yeah. So they're going to have money available. So that means they have to get... I mean, look at the money they've spent over the last 10 years in players. It's incredible. So if they could get all that money back and give it to the right person in charge of recruitment, then you would see a Man United back up top, regardless of the owner or the manager. I've got to offer some context for the next question. Okay. because it's come upon Football Americas. So Norwich head coach Philippe Clement has claimed that striker Josh Sargent refused to play in Sunday's 5-1 FA Cup victory over Warsaw because of transfer things in his head.

1:02:50Saying Josh sent me on Saturday evening, sent me a message saying he would not be available because of transfer things in his head. The play has been linked with a move to MLS's Toronto FC. And so this leads to this question. Stevie, if you managed in today's world how would you react if a player texted you that he can't play in a match because of transfer things in his head Well you don't play It wouldn't make any sense to play I mean why would you go I don't care, you're playing There's a point in doing that His head's not in it He's not going to concentrate So there's no point Now, does it change Does it change what you think about the player?

1:03:31Maybe You know, it depends what kind of character it is we don't know what character he is right? If he's been a pain in the neck for the last two or three months because he knows he's getting a move then I'm sorry you just completely he trains with the kids as far as I'm concerned but if he's a good guy and you know he's always giving you everything but he's telling you that his head's scrambled then you just say okay I get it and at the end of the day if your head's not right and they're not in it, then it's going to be no use to me or the players or your team. So it depends on the character of the player.

1:04:11Right. Here's the thing, Stevie, and I understand where you're coming from with this. Here's the thing. He sent a text message, Stevie. Huh? What was it? He sent a text message. This is how he communicated this to the manager. Oh, I didn't... So, you see, if it was the latter, would you expect that to have been a phone call? and if it was like, boss, this is just not working for me today, that would be a phone call, right? That falls in the category of the first thing I said. Yeah, it just... That tells you what character it is. Yeah, and here's the other thing. He's been told, just from more contact, he's been told that no, he's not going to be sold.

1:04:48But the only transfer thing in his head is, you're a player for this team, and you're under contract with this team, and we've already told you that it's not happening. That's it. if you have a problem with that, you don't send this notification via text message. You go and have a conversation with the manager. You find the manager and actually have a face-to-face and present your case and say what you're feeling and what you're thinking and talk it out. And if you want to have a back and forth, you can have that back and forth. But you don't send a text message to tell him that, nah, I got transfer things on my head.

1:05:26That doesn't send... if you're trying to be professional about this, this is not the way to do it. It's a coward we own, isn't it? It absolutely is. And certainly that's the perception that I get. And I said this on Fulgur America. I said, look, I recognise that nowadays people do things via text message all the time for just about everything. Well, this is one of those times in which a text message is not enough. It's not enough. Last question for Ali. How happy were you that the Philadelphia Eagles got knocked out during the playoffs? Well, no, I'm not one of those fans that because my team stinks that I want everybody else to stink as well.

1:06:07No, I think once I realized that the Cowboys were going to stink, which is pretty early on in the season, then I pretty much turned the page. I don't hate watch the Philadelphia Eagles rooting against them because that's not going to make my team any better. That's not going to improve things for my team. So I'm not going to waste any emotional energy in rooting against somebody else. Look at these mature answers from you guys tonight. I'm so proud of you. I'm so proud of you both. Well, it's also a realisation that your team stinks. We call a lot of things, my team. Mature's not one of them. That's true.

1:06:48Thanks so much for sending in your questions. We'll be back tomorrow to do it all over again.

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