Arsenal Survive Penultimate Test

21:17And it's difficult to properly analyse, to be perfectly honest with you, because what happens is that at some level you have a president that likes the idea of a manager imposing upon his players, but maybe not enough to see it through. Because, of course, for a manager to impose upon his players, for a manager to have that authority, that authority needs to come from above. That authority needs to be an authority invested in him by the president. And yet, ultimately, you've still got a president whose fundamental view of things is that the players are the ones that make a football team. The players are the stars.

21:47I mean, put in the most simple terms possible, when a president like Florentino-Pedez looks at his team, and for example, let's take last year's confrontation, or this season's confrontation between Vinicius and Xavi Alonso. When Florentino looks at that, he thinks to himself, well, you know, there's only one Vinicius. There's no one in the world who's quite like Vinicius. But I could get another coach. It doesn't need to be this guy. And I think what makes Mourinho different is, I think of all the managers that Florentino-Pedez has had, that he hasn't necessarily been enamoured with, even those ones that he's quite liked, even those ones that have been reasonably successful, that he hasn't really felt, if you like, a commitment to or a sense that this is the guy, maybe even more so than the players.

22:26The only one he's ever really had that kind of feeling with was Mourinho. And as I say, and this brings us to this question of nostalgia. So when Mourinho left last time, Gab was talking about this, that third season, that third season was a season too far. It was deeply unpleasant. It was broken. It couldn't carry on. And everybody knew it couldn't carry on. Everybody knew that there was no way that you could allow this to go into a full season. And actually, I think deep down, they all felt to themselves, we should have stopped this at the end of the second season. But there is still that feeling of, yeah, but this is a team that, having not won a Champions League knockout tie in six years, got to the semifinals.

23:01This is the beginning of them competing. Remember that comment that Mourinho made in Lisbon before the Benfica game in the Champions League? He said, I had a conversation with Ferencino Pérez when I left, and he said to me, you've done the hard part. The easy part comes now. And I think there is an admiration for Mourinho being the one that drove through changes. That Florentino, whether he's not, he's right. It's another debate and we could be here all night talking about it. But that Florentino believes at least that Mourinho drove through changes that were necessary. And I think this is the key.

23:30Right now, he thinks similar changes are necessary again.

23:33Dan Thomas:Yeah. So what we have seen recently, Robbo, is the players not respecting Xabi Alonso, at least some of them. And then the same theme has followed with Alvaro Abelhoa. Some of the players not showing full respect to him. So will this crop of players respect Jose Mourinho? Is he be able to get them on his side? He might be able to get them on his side, but what we have to think about is that at the moment, Real Madrid are an ill-disciplined club. They've got ill-disciplined players. When they start to lose games, we see Mastentuono get sent off for a reckless challenge. We've seen Mbappe go over the top on a player when things weren't going his way.

24:09We've seen Vinicius Junior's antics. We've seen Jude Bellingham not being disciplined on the field. Goulet got himself sent off a couple of times after the final whistle. Do you think that Mourinho is going to stop that ill discipline? He's going to add to it. Whenever you see Mourinho now, and I saw him a lot at Roma, as Gab did, Roma's behaviour on the pitch and off the pitch in European games and in Serie A games was absolutely diabolical. And it all came down to the manager. I don't know how many times he was sent off. And that's going to happen more and more and more when he comes to Real Madrid.

24:43It's going to be fun to watch, but it's not going to be pleasant, I don't think.

24:46Dan Thomas:Yeah, let's talk about it being fun to watch on the pitch, Xhaka, because arguably the best we saw Real Madrid was versus Manchester City in the Champions League, sitting deep, playing on the counter-attack. Jose Mourinho's Madrid of the 2011-2012 season. You could draw some parallels there to that. Could they return to a side like that? Could they go a whole season playing football like that under him? Well, kind of Jose Mourinho during his tenure, in my opinion, and has always kind of focused on the defense and even very attacking sides. I thought he had them pragmatic. Part of the boss Jose cliche comes to mind.

25:21I think the Jose Mourinho appointment right now is less about the football and more about this dysfunctional dressing room that they have. Maybe it is, and again, I'm trying to be glass half full here. It does take somebody like Jose Mourinho to come and figure those things out, make some of those hard decisions. Whether it is Vinicius Jr. is just allowed his contractor to run out and move on. I'm not sure what you're doing with Kylian Mbappe or how you get that to work. But Jose Mourinho certainly, I do not believe, or certainly hasn't shown any past, that he's afraid to make those big decisions that might get some pushback.

26:01Other managers might get some pushback from the dressing rooms. Kind of given how these dressing rooms have acted with other managers, I think he's the right pick in that regard. The football will come after. Right now, I think there's a primary issue that Jose Mourinho is best placed to address.

26:18Dan Thomas:Given it right now, how it's all turned out, is he the right pick right now, Stevie? I don't know. You know, the problem is there's a fine line between bringing a guy in to sort people out and having to play some sort of football on the field. and the way that you can bring players who can be a problem round, it's not just about how you deal with them off the field, but how the team plays and how the team's winning. If a team's winning, it's a lot easier to manipulate and talk to players and get them on your side, but when you're not winning games, it just becomes twice as hard. So there's a fine line between being a disciplinarian and then sorting out on the field.

27:00It's okay to ask players like Vinny or Mbappe or Bellingham to sit tight and break on an important one-off Champions League night against Man City or MDL. But to ask those players to be doing that on a regular basis. I mean, you think you're having trouble getting Vinny and Mbappe to run around and defend now? If you're going to ask them to do that every week to help the team, what's the chances of that? So I am not sure. I'm sure Mourinho will come in, he'll point his finger and he'll tell them what he wants. Will they do it? I'm not so sure.

27:36Dan Thomas:What table to football do you think we'd see, Robbo, under Jose Mourinho with this crop of players? Well, you know, we're talking about his defensive qualities and he's had that over the years. But remember when he came to Chelsea, yes, they played some defensive football at times. They were very good defensively, but they also played some great attacking football. He did that with Inter, not so much in Europe, but he did it in Serie A. He played some great football there and they won the title and they were excellent to watch. He did it for a little while at Real Madrid for a couple of seasons.

28:04So he's not always been a counter-attacking manager. In the big games, he's been a counter-attacking manager, but he has got the ability, or he did have the ability, to get teams to play some good football and go and score goals. So is it still in him? I'm not sure there is, because I don't think he's progressed with the way football's progressed.

28:22Dan Thomas:yeah it's interesting isn't it Sid when you think about that team like going back to the year where it did go well for Jose Mourinho when they did win La Liga with Real Madrid granted when you think of some of the players he had it's interesting but what were we looking at 121 goals 100 points he has those receipts there at Real Madrid oh absolutely he does and and I think there is you know I was talking before about nostalgia and how some of the bad parts of it are forgotten I also think occasionally some of the good elements are forgotten and I do I do think that Mourinho at times has been and Rob has just been talking about it there kind of assumed to be one dimensional style very defensive and that wasn't always entirely true I think that Real Madrid side the other thing I would say actually is that the way that that Real Madrid side played with Mourinho I thought the counter-attacking was absolutely fantastic it wasn't just a case of a team booting out the pitch for the fast guy to run onto the way that they were breaking numbers the way that they would coordinate those counter-attacks I thought was really really good to watch and they did mix it up and they did do more and as you've just said they were in the league tight with 100 points 121 goals they were relentless they were a really really good aggressive front-footed side that could play on the counter-attack but that could also be really aggressive and step into you and press you much much higher up the pitch I think one of the question marks will be and you know this has been raised already whether this is a squad that's as good as that one was and of course right now the answer is probably not now you've got a player like Vinicius you've got a player like Mbappe you've got a player like Bellingham who, you know, these are three players in the last, well, over the last three, four years, you'd say they were up there amongst the best seven or eight players in the world.

29:51Maybe not last season. In fact, not at all last season. Not even close. But these are players that you could see the potential in the right context and the right structure for them to perform really well again.

30:02Dan Thomas:Yeah, Stevie, I'm interested to know how you would feel about Trent Alexander-Arnold. Bearing in mind, he did have Marcelo in his team in Real Madrid back in the day. Wow. Well, I think if you can get two centre-backs that are playing beside Trent Alexander-Arnold to cover up for what he can't do, then there's not a coach alive who wouldn't want Trent Alexander in the team because of what he gives you going forward. And under normal circumstances, when you play for Real Madrid, that's what you generally do. You play in the other half of the field. You don't spend as much time defensively. Unfortunately, right now, Real Madrid have to defend just as much as any other team.

30:45And so when you have a guy like Trent whose defensive qualities aren't particularly great, then it becomes a question of does he play or not. And so Mourinho, I am sure, will try and use all the qualities that Trent has. But if Real Madrid as a team aren't able to produce the type of football that either he wants or his previous teams did, then it becomes a different question because if you have to defend more you can't rely on Trent Alexander then you might have to make a change so it depends on how this team plays if this Jose Mourinho Real Madrid is about going forward and attacking then absolutely Trent Alexander has to play but you also have to get two centre backs that are going to cover for him if it's the other way around then there's way less chance of him seeing the field

31:36Dan Thomas:Do the elections play any part in this whole thing, Sid, with Jose Mourinho coming in? Yeah, they do. And I think probably the truth is that the answer to the question is that they play a part probably in the timing and the timing of the announcement of this rather than necessarily on this happens. Because I think they're waiting, of course, for Enrique Raquel May to say whether or not he's going to stand. He's actually spoken in the last three or four hours and said that he has the money for the guarantee to be able to stand. And the next couple of days, he'll make the final decision about whether or not he does so.

32:08That will mean that there actually would be presidential elections, which is a surprise because Vorentino Perez since 2006 has not had anyone to stand against. Every time he stood, he stood alone. And I think what he was trying to do in part with that press conference last week was to flush out any opposition and basically prevent them from being able to stand against him or to be able to defeat them comfortably if they did stand against him. Now, that changes the timings a little bit because I think there will be a sense that you don't necessarily make an announcement like this while you're in an electoral process.

32:35So you would have to wait. The assumption would be that there wouldn't be an opponent. So from the 26th or the 27th of May, you basically be able to get on with things. If there is an actual election, that does slow things down a bit. Now, for what it's worth, I think if there are elections, I think Florentino Pérez, despite his concern, despite his obvious concern in terms of his response last week, I think he would win the elections and win the elections quite comfortably. So it shouldn't prevent it from happening. What it might do, as I say, is change the timing of it a little bit.

33:03Dan Thomas:OK, let's go around the horn now, Gab. He comes in for two years at Real Madrid. How many titles is Jose Mourinho likely to win?

33:15Liga titles? I think it's entirely possible he doesn't win any. Could he do something in a knockout competition like the Champions League? Yeah, I still think that's his element. Remember, obviously, he reached finals with, well, certainly with Roma, won the Conference League, reached the Europa League final, kind of took it to the wire there. I just, and I don't, it's not a knock on him, but it's two years in which you have to make up ground on this Barcelona side that despite all the financial restrictions have looked so dominant. and there's so much dysfunction. And like I said, decision number one, top of the list.

33:56Do you extend Vinicius Jr. or do you go in a different direction? What will Jose want to do if indeed he does come in? So, yeah, I'm going to be a little conservative on this one.

34:09Dan Thomas:Okay, you know what? We're going to let Sid go now because if this is to happen, he's going to be very, very busy. So he's got a lot of work ahead of him, even though it is the end of the season. So, Sid, thanks so much for joining us. We look forward to seeing how all of this plays out. And more La Liga on the way for the final day. Real Madrid against Athletic coming up on Saturday. At the same time, Valencia-Barcelona, Espanyol-Real Sociedad, Getafe against Osasuna, Girona against Elche. That's a direct relegation battle. Mallorca is still in the fight. They'll be up against the already relegated Real Oviedo.

34:42Dan Thomas:Betis, they've already secured Europe in Champions League football next season. They take on Levante. who gave themselves a big win at the weekend and climbed themselves out of the bottom end. Celta against Sevilla, Alaves against Rayo, and Villarreal taking on Atleti. Saturday's coverage will begin at 2.30pm Eastern, and every single one of these matches available on ESPN+.

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37:35Dan Thomas:Carlo Ancelotti has announced Brazil's final 26-man roster today. The big question, did Neymar make it? The big answer is yes, he did, Xhaka. Neymar is in. Yeah, I have to admit, this has come as a little bit of a surprise to me. When Ancelotti named his 55-man squad, what was it, last week, I thought that was just an exercise in almost appeasing Neymar. um listen on the one hand he has had a good start to the season with Santos so far in what 13 games he's got six goals four assists that's a decent return I still have question marks around whether Neymar starts I don't think he does and what kind of a presence is he in that dress room if he doesn't if things aren't going well um those are questions that are only Ancelotti can answer or I guess Ancelotti has no answer.

38:28I'm still a little bit sceptical. I'll have to wait to see how this all plays out.

38:32Dan Thomas:Gab, you're a big Ancelotti guy. Does this surprise you in any way or did you expect it? I expected it. We said it much on the Gab and George show that if he was fit, he would be going. I think the thing to remember is that Carlo Ancelotti is an exceptional hand manager. that that's kind of his shtick, that that's what he does very, very well. And I think he looks at this as the chaos caused by not calling Neymar, if it's a fit Neymar, and it looks like it is a fit Neymar right now, might have hung over this team. If Neymar is there, he doesn't necessarily need to start. Maybe he comes on, maybe he makes a difference.

39:16As long as the team keep winning, they're not going to care if Neymar's there or not. and I think Brazil feel really good about their chances. He showed calling people like Ryan up, for example, that he's got faith and it's not going to be all about Neymar, but Neymar will be a part of it.

39:34Dan Thomas:What do you think of Neymar being in the squad and the roster, Robbo? I have to say on the TV, on your show about seven or eight years ago when he was at Barcelona and they were saying, should he go to PSG? I was saying Barcelona, get rid of him, get him out of the club, get him to PSG. When he was at PSG, I said, get him out of PSG. There'd be a much better team without him. And I would say the same with Brazil. Yeah, I understand what Gab's saying. Ancelotti will manage him quite well, but he's not a player that I admire particularly. I think he causes more problems than he's worth. I wouldn't have him in the squad.

40:07Dan Thomas:Oh, Stevie, all those Brazilian, all those young players love Neymar though. Does that make a difference in this? I would be 100 % with Xhaka and Robbo if Ancelotti wasn't the manager. There's just a little bit of me thinks, Ancelotti's not a stupid guy. This guy's been through it, knows it inside out. Not just the playing side, but the managing side, the man management side. He understands. He'll understand how Neymar being there will make the other players feel. There are so many things that will go into that. I'm kind of stuck. I'm 50-50. I'm really 50-50. And that's just because of Angelotti.

40:53That's how good this guy is. If he wasn't the manager, I'd be 100 % Robo and Chaka. I'd be like, you're asking for trouble. But there's a little bit of me thinks Angelotti might try and use it to his benefit.

41:05Dan Thomas:Yep. Well, we will find out. We're going to let Gab go now. But as Gab mentioned, the Gab and Joel show has dropped. They've been talking about this and many other things. And you can check out the Gavin Jules podcast every single week, twice a week, wherever you do get your podcasts.

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42:35Dan Thomas:Reaction in Spain to Antoine Griezmann's goodbye to the Metropolitano as he leaves Athlete. Marca saying your love is worth more than a Champions League. Diario As saying thank you for so much. He did ask for forgiveness to all of the fans when he got hold of the microphone for going to Barcelona, saying he was young. And he made a mistake back then to join Barcelona and did not understand the love that he had at Athlete. There was not a dry eye in the house at the Metropolitano for Antoine Griezmann's farewell. I've got a group of romantics with me right now, which is really good to be talking about this because we want to get the personal angle on this.

43:12Dan Thomas:And we hear Antoine Griezmann speaking about the regret that he had, the regret that he had to have gone to Barcelona, not realising just how loved and how special he was at Atleti. And then he went back and he put it all right. And him talking about that, first of all, what you think about it. and then I'd be interested to know if you had any regrets of your own in your career. Well, I think he's lucky that he got the opportunity to go back and be able to say what he did say and apologise. I guess he's probably right. He was younger and the grass isn't always greener. He found that out. And so, yeah, it's a great moment for him and his family.

43:56I'm not a big one for regrets to be honest I certainly don't think every single thing I did was the right decision

44:04Dan Thomas:Have you got any sliding door moments then where you think I wonder what would happen if I'd have made a different decision here Well if I was a little kid the one thing I always wanted to do was play for Glasgow Rangers that was my team and I had the opportunity when Graeme Souness took over in the late 80s he called me when I was at Liverpool

44:27and I wasn't a kid anymore and I understood that the best decision for me would be to stay at Liverpool. But now that I'm finished playing and you look back, if there was one thing I would love to have done that would have been pull on the Rangers jersey, but I don't regret it. It would just have been nice if it happened.

44:44Dan Thomas:Yeah, would have been nice. I wonder if Bobby Gold ever spoke about Robbo the way that Diego Simeone just did there, about Antoine Griezmann, about the player being a weakness for him. I wonder, Robbo. Tell me, any regrets for you in your career? Well, you've hit on it, really. There was one or two regrets before this, but the biggest regret is that I'd recovered from injury. I'd been out for a year and a half, and I went to Coventry, had a really good season, capped in the club as player of the year, and I was going to sign an extension on the contract. They were going to buy my house and move me up to the Coventry area.

45:20Don Howe was the manager. I had a really good relationship. with and Asna Villa came in Ron Atkinson phoned me up and Terry Venables phoned me up at Spurs would you like to come I said no even though Coventry aren't a particularly good side I want to stay there they've been good to me and then in the summer just as I was about to move Don Howe resigned and Bobby Gould took over oh my good god that was the worst year and a half I've ever experienced in football I was injured for most of it but Bobby Gould and I didn't really see I knew there was a problem when my wife was having a baby and he said to me, you stay at home just come in twice a week, make sure you go home, because I was still living in London and then I found out from the paper that he dropped me from the captaincy because I only turned up twice a week so he pulled one out

46:09Dan Thomas:oh no that's when I knew the relationship wasn't a particularly good one no, definitely not Shaka, the producer says you've got a heart of stone and you're not a romantic type I don't know where that came from. I don't have any regrets. Sidney, not in any way that Rob and Stevie did. Listen, I kind of, you know, growing up in Trinidad, I was just happy that somebody was letting me play on the football field every Saturday. But to the bigger picture, and multi-point around Griezmann and that decision, I think it's a decision that nearly every player in the same situation would have made, an opportunity to go from Atletico Madrid, who can't even say they were always bridesmaids.

46:50They were somewhere down the line because they seemed to be always playing third place behind Real Madrid and Barcelona. And I know they had their successes. But you get to go to Barcelona where you compete consistently at the top of the table for European titles. You've got Lionel Messi there. There's an attraction to that as well. So you make that decision and then it doesn't work out. So you understand him coming back to where he felt loved and that kind of romance into the term that we're using makes perfect sense. Probably the closest parallel that I can draw, at least from a teammate, is Alan Shearer going to Newcastle United when he did, winning the title with Blackburn Rovers, wanted by every single club, certainly in English football, if not European football, but going back to where he grew up and playing for his hometown club.

47:40There's something about that that you just cannot put. But once you have that silverware and you have the accolades kind of tucked away, there's something about going back to your hometown club and representing that club you dreamed of playing for as a little boy that you just can't describe and almost can't put a price on.

47:59Dan Thomas:Yeah. You know, his wife Erica told him at the time, if you go there, you'll just be another star. But here, you will always be beloved. And that's why the Athletic fans all love his wife as well. She was right. She was right. He had the regrets after that, but yes, he should have listened to his wife. Stay right where you are. Extra Time is on the way next with Robbo.

48:20Dan Thomas:Welcome into the latest edition of Extra Time. Stuart Robson is joining Chuck Hislop and Stevie Nichol here in the studio. So that last highlight, last games of the season, last day, all games kicking off simultaneously. One game and it matters, whether you're top or you're bottom, conditions are like that. Conditions like that, we're talking about Eredivisie where the field was so wet, players can barely play. But now, any league, right? Any league. So let's say the Premier League is coming down to the last game of the season. Let's say it's raining, you know, cats and dogs and Crystal Palace in South London.

48:57Do you call both games off? No. You play one, but then if you call the game off and then play it on Monday or whatever, but Arsenal has an advantage. That's just unfortunate circumstances. You can't cover every base. All right. You certainly can't play the game. No, you definitely... You can't play the game. You called the game off. Granted, you can't play the game. You called the game off, and unfortunately, unforeseen circumstances sometimes happen, and you get on with it. I'll go with you, Stephen.

49:27Dan Thomas:Yep, you can't predict the weather, Robbo, can you? Good move, Shaq. You certainly can't predict the weather, but I mean, Shaq is getting a bit deep, isn't he, with this one? Well, you know me, you know me. I know you should look for iFab, but... These are the things I think about when I'm driving... He's full of his own importance now. What do you mean you can't predict the weather? I can look up my phone. He tells you. That's a good point. What if you know the weather's going to be bad? What if you know the weather's going to be bad? Do you call both games off? If on Friday you know the weather's going to be bad, do you call both games off?

50:00Are you hoping for the bad? Oh, you turn up and if it's possible to play, you play, whether it's one game, no games or both games play. You've got to deal with situations. But what he's saying, Stevie, what he's saying is, if they're all meant to be played at the same time, and this game has something on it, and both teams know they can only, if they get a draw, they stay up or whatever it is, then both teams play for a draw, they just play out the game because they know the result of the other game. That's what I think Shaq is trying to say. So, you know, fully understand it. Yeah, when it's something at stake.

50:31And so my point is, I keep using Man City and Arsenal for some arbitrary reason, right? So those games are on, what, Sunday? So let's say it's Saturday morning. Everybody knows you're going to get 12 inches of rain in South London. Do you call off both games and say, listen, it's going to, you know, now you'll have to play Monday or whatever it is.

50:57Dan Thomas:I can't believe we're talking about the weather. I tell you what, that's when you wish Barley was here.

51:06People are hypothetical. What's hypothetical? What are you on about? What's a lot of nonsense? That's why I haven't ever used to. Stevie. We had the Wembley Craig at the weekend. He was full of fun. He was talking. He was friendly. Everybody in the front row. He was all shaking hands. Just wait until he gets back to Connecticut. here be the same old Mrs. Rolfe that he always is.

51:34Dan Thomas:Wembley Craig, I hear his late golf club Craig. I did see a little wave off the side of the camera when he went live. I've never seen him so happy in my life. Was it Watford? Was it the Watford Bee he was dancing? Yes, I remember watching that. Where's that, Craig? Oh, boy. He wasn't quite that happy, did he? He did it. Stevie knows better. I don't think he's back until Saturday. Anyway. Robbo, why don't Arsenal like scoring more than one goal? Ah, well, they've sort of gone into their shell a little bit because today was the ideal day. They'd scored the goal after having 35, 36 minutes. They could have gone on and got a second.

52:19They should have, I think, pressed higher up the field and got Odegaard higher up the field, Eze higher up the field and killed the game off just after half-time because they've got the quality to beat a Burnley side that were never really going to cause them too many problems. Arteta would say he got the job done and he did. But really, I think Arsenal could have made it far much easier, far easier for themselves by scoring a second.

52:40Dan Thomas:OK. Might Don be right in his predictions for once? He said he saw something with photos taken and some trophies lined up at the Etihad. And today's report said Guardiola will be leaving City at the end of the season. I'll tell you what, here's what we should do. get every prediction don's made and stack them up to the the yes column and the wrong column and i'm pretty sure you know where the where the biggest column is going to be so you've got to be right eventually even a broken clock's rate yeah okay we remember okay we remember when don came over to connecticut and uh he was talking about harry kane will never to go to Bayern Munich.

53:22He will never go to Bayern Munich. What does he want to go there for? He wants to be the top scorer in Premier League history. There's no reason for him to go to Bayern Munich. I'm telling you now, he will not go there. Two days later, he was at Bayern Munich.

53:35Dan Thomas:Adamant. However, he did also give us a little insight into the Xabi Alonso situation the other day. Yes, he did. Didn't he? Yes, he did. Yes. He said, now, he has the trouble with that. We're going to have to listen to that all summer long. All right. Okay. Don, sometimes yes, sometimes no. All right, Stevie. Yeah, yeah, follow. There's the old broken clock theory. He was right twice. Yeah, he's right. We've been here about it all summer long. This is an interesting one, Stevie, because obviously we saw your opinion on what Mohamed Salah had to say the other day. But on his post, who do you think knows more and better?

54:14Dan Thomas:The pundits criticizing him or his teammate to have all liked his post in agreement. So does that make them right? All that tells you is that they're just back. But who knows more and better? If they think that's right, that tells you that there's something wrong with them as well. That's all that tells you. It doesn't matter how many of them have backed them up. What he did was 100 % wrong. 100 % wrong. so it just tells you kind of the state of the club when you have so Sandy Robertson, Eka TK Firmino even getting it just tells you where the club is at and where the playing staff are at when they all if that's correct if they all think what he did was the right thing that's not good that's not good I mean it's horrendous and I think the most important thing I said yesterday in my opinion was all the fantastic players that played at Liverpool whose time at the top basically ended when they played at Liverpool you can't go back and find any of them criticising the club, the manager, the whatever as I said yesterday, it's called class so yeah, I think that tells you where the club is the teamers and the dressing roomers, if indeed those people think that he's correct.

55:49Dan Thomas:Out of interest, what did you think of what Salah had to say, Robbo? Do you think he was wrong in doing so? Of course he's wrong in doing so. If he's going to do it, he might as well have done it once he's left the club. But what he's trying to do is to say that the manager's wrong, I've been right. The reason that I wasn't always in the team and didn't play so well this season is because it's the manager's fault. And then by other players backing that up, so we believe with their liking of the tweet or whatever it's called, they're throwing the manager under the bus as well. They're telling the fans that we don't like the manager.

56:21They're telling the board, we don't like the manager. So the club is in real turmoil at the moment.

56:27Dan Thomas:Only one person I can ask this question to first. What's the worst haircut that you've ever had, Stevie?

56:44By the way, I actually never recognised the one on the right.

56:50Dan Thomas:Oh, man. That was during Covid, Stevie. Wow. I must have run out of it. I bet you're glad you've got no hair on the right. I'm a rubber, when you see that. Well, I certainly am. But the one on the right, he's had a dye as well, hasn't he? He's had a bit of a tick-tock. He's had a swoosh across. and he's had a tint. I mean, I never thought Stevie would have a tint. Oh, dear, dear, dear. A little tint.

57:22That's just nail gel. Nail gel. Nail gel. Colman. He's picked it. You picked that off the worktop or just put it on top of your head. It's terrible. It looked like a syrup, didn't it?

57:39Dan Thomas:If you had to have the rest of your time with just one of those hairstyles, which one would it be? I'd still go with the syrup. You go with that? I think so, yeah. Look at this. The syrup. Can you explain what a syrup means? Sorry, syrup of egg is a way. It's a way. A dupe. But, yeah, at least with the one on the right, you could do something with it. You can't do anything with that thing on the left. Well, why didn't you do something with it then? Because I couldn't.

58:12Dan Thomas:I don't think we're going to beat that. Let's just leave it at that, shall we? Kay, would you give up your Scottish citizenship for Middlesbrough to be in the Premier League? Then maybe go straight down. But does that mean just giving up, saying I'm a quarter Scottish, or does that mean I have to give up my British passport? How shall we interpret this? No, you've got to give up your 25%. Yeah, yeah, 25%. Yeah, OK. Yeah, you look really deeply hurt by that. Well, no, you didn't accept me anyway. So it's probably a good idea. You didn't accept me anyway. You know what? Just do it anyway. You all called me a fake Scot.

58:46Dan Thomas:You said it wasn't even real. Do every Scot something a favour. Just get rid of it. No. We don't want you. You're not committed. You told me I wasn't well committed. Well, you're not committed. You're not welcome. Oh. So don't cross the border ever again. Because our borders are sharp, by the way. Oh, thanks, Stevie. All right. Just that I love Middlesbrough, all right. OK, legendary German woman player Alex Pop, who played her last match with Wolfsburg this past weekend, drank a beer on the bench after getting subbed off. Stevie, were you ever tempted to drink a beer during your last match at Liverpool or in your career?

59:29I actually did drink a beer in a game, a testimonial game between Everton and Liverpool that was for Kenny Dalgish and Marina's charity and during the game I had to go off to get the ball for a throw-in and somebody was sat in the front row and they went like, hey do you want something? I went absolutely!

59:52They weren't happy.

59:59Dan Thomas:Jack, do you remember any little shots outside of the pitch? Behind the goal waiting for you? No, I didn't. Not you, Robbo? Never felt like that? Well, I have to say, when I first joined West Ham, and it was a boozy club, I would say, West Ham at the time, and we went on an end-of-season trip to Guernsey, and we played Guernsey Airlines. It was a holiday for five days, but you had to play this one game. But you had to drink a whole bottle of champagne between two of us before you could play the game. So you can imagine what sort of state we were all in. So that wasn't good. Yeah, very good. And the only time I've ever gone onto the pitch with having a drink in Siamine from at least four days beforehand.

1:00:43Dan Thomas:All right. Thank you so much for sending in your questions today. And sorry to all the Scots out there. Oh, we're not sorry.

1:00:57Okay.

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