Concern for Man City?

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25:09Let's talk some Spanish football, shall we? Because it looks like Rodri is heading to Barcelona. Yep, it looks like the Catalan Giants will be adding yet another World Cup winner to their ranks with the Spanish captain on his way to the La Liga champions after leaving Manchester City for 76.5 million euros. First of all, let's look at this, Jules, from the Manchester City perspective. With all the issues or whatever we just talked about, even though we know it's early on, we know exactly how good a player Rodri can be, what kind of a role he has, especially what he had and won at Manchester City.

25:44So how big of a loss really is this now at this stage of his career for City? I mean I think he's a loss for what we saw he was capable of doing in the World Cup with Spain but let's not forget that last season he didn't play that much the season before he obviously had a long very serious injury that he's 30 years old that he has only one year left on his contract so if you match the city and you see that offer coming from Barcelona which is an incredible offer really for a player of his age with his injury record before with the contract that he was still as I mentioned, just a year left on it, to be offered that kind of money, even for Rodri, even for a former Ballon d 'Or winner, for a World Cup winner, for anything you want, you take it.

26:28For City, you take it. You get that money for Rodri, you get$60 million for Rinders, coming from Saudi Arabia. This is almost like a miracle. Really, it's miraculous for them to get that money. And then you can go and sign Boadi, and sign Enzo, and then you've already signed Eli Anderson, and you've got the three new midfielders because you also lost Bernardo Silva, and this one for nothing. So from a Sydney point of view, you have to take that offer. And also, you were not sure what Rodri would give you this season. He's already injured. He had that surgery on his back. He won't be back before October at the earliest, I think.

27:01And if you're City and if you're Enzo Maleska, you think, hang on, I could not have you for the whole of preseason, for the start of the season. By the time you come back, I think it makes a lot of sense from a City point of view. For Rodri, I'm not too sure. But certainly from a Barcelona point of view, really? You're going to put that money down on a player like him? On that, I'm really struggling to understand the logic. Ale? I think the logic from Barcelona, and let me just clarify this and say it's not my logic. I'm thinking what Barcelona are probably thinking. If you go back to last season and Pedri and the role that he had at Barcelona, he became sort of that deeper line midfielder.

27:42and he limited his presence in the attack. And we saw some of his struggles in the World Cup in that he was trying to take that deeper position as he had been doing with Barcelona, and Rodri was already there. And so what I'm thinking that Barcelona is probably thinking is Rodri can play the deeper line midfield and then that allows Pedri the freedom to get forward and get in contact with Fermín López, with Dani Ormo, with Laminya Mar, with Anthony Gordon, with Rafinha. And he can then be a presence in the attacking 18-yard box. He became very much a guy who was connecting from the back line and doing it at a very high level because Pedri did play at a very high level last season for Barcelona and La Liga.

28:27But I think it limited his touches in the attacking half, in the final third. And I think he does have in him in his game to be able to provide that final pass, to be able to provide that final touch. He has that sort of vision. And so I think you waste some of that if he is 60 yards away from goal. So I'm guessing, this is only a guess, I'm guessing that this is what Barcelona are thinking. We have a deeper line midfielder in Rodri that frees Pedri to get forward, and that makes us a better team attacking. It's only a guess. Only a guess. Frank, how do you see Rodri fitting in at Barcelona, especially helping out that defense that we know has been known to be a little bit vulnerable, but we talked so much about how much of an influence Rodri was with Kubarci at the World Cup and that probably could work in Barcelona's favor as well.

29:16Well, you almost said it all. I mean, if you don't have a Rodri injured, of course, of course, a Rodri is important. It's even crucial. I was watching, I was looking at the resume and I said, what the hell, except the Barond-Dor, because you all know that I don't care. But everything was perfect. The four-time Premier League, the Champions League, the World Cup, the European Championship, the guy won it all. And that's amazing. And that guy was going to bring something special to the club. There is an aura around him, and that guy will bring positivity and of course will help maybe the younger player, the player who are looking for the same kind of fame.

29:58So if he's not injured, yes, it costs a lot to Barcelona, but that was going to be a plus. I want to believe that's going to be a plus. And I really hope that he's not going to be injured because what a player. The guy is a masterpiece in his position. Yeah, Rodri definitely is quite the special player on his day. We will see, though, if that happens. But, Jules, I want to talk about some other potential business that Barcelona could do. And that is particularly up front in their hunt for a striker. We know that they're still at quite the impasse because they did want Julian Alvarez. Atletico de Madrid saying, not for now.

30:35So now I'm hearing that they're turning their attention to Victor Jocheres. Tell us about that, the likelihood of it happening. Yeah, I mean, that's another name that's been linked to them. Luis Suarez as well. The other one, the one from Sporting, the Colombian last season, also linked with them. Because they lost Ferran Torres, who went to PSG, and they got good money for him with only one year left on his contract as well. Obviously, Robert Lewandowski left on the little graphic that we showed earlier on the possible starting 11 for the first game. We put Rafinha as a number nine. That could be Anthony Gordon too.

31:10But whoever that is between the two, they're not proper number nine. So I think they need to go and sign a proper striker. And that's where I struggle a little bit as well with Rodri. Because if you want Rodri, okay, I can understand, although there's also Fokin de Jong that we haven't mentioned in our little dialogue about Rodri. Why don't you spend some of that money on a number nine first? because surely you need that more than a six. And then if you still have money left for a club that has been struggling financially for the last five years minimum, then yeah, go and sign Rodri. But right now, for me, it was not the priority.

31:45However, they decided to go for Rodri Goodes. Now they need a number nine. And I'm not sure where they're going to find the money and what kind of budget they have for that. I don't think Jocares is the answer either, to be honest. I'm not sure Luis Suarez is either, to be fair. So I'm not sure where you go now because again, a bit like what we said for City earlier, we are already in the last two weeks of this transfer window. So the options are less than they were a month ago. Other clubs know that you're looking for number nine, so they're more likely to increase the evaluation of their players if you might want them because they know that you have the urgency to signing a number nine and you are panicking about your number nine.

32:22And that's not looking good for Barcelona. Never underestimate the ability for Barcelona to find some financial gymnastics to get who they want. Right, but to Jules' point, it's not just Frankie de Jong. They got Marc Bernal in that position as well. So if there was a position in which Barcelona have some depth, it's in that number six, number eight, that sort of midfield pairing and the rotation that they have made and Hansi Flick has made in those positions. And yes, again, you would think that the priority would be sorting out your number nine position, or at the very least, that you don't allow Ferran Torres to walk out the door if you don't have the solution to your problem already.

33:01That's the part that I don't understand. You want to sell Ferran Torres? Okay. But that's because you've got the other things sorted out. If you don't have the next evolution sorted out, already figured out, then you can't let this guy walk out the door because you don't have any other option. I don't know how that works. But Ale, this is your area of the pitch. If they do get Jocheres or go for it, he's not the answer. No, no, no, no, no. Absolutely not. No, no, no, no, no. What doesn't fit there? What doesn't fit? What don't you like? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. No, no, no, no. None of it fits.

33:35The style of Barcelona does not fit Victor Jokic. Imagine if he wasn't touching the ball at Arsenal when he would come on the field. At Barcelona, are you kidding me? Forget about it. He just doesn't fit. He doesn't seem to fit. And it's not a guy that you would think. if you think about how Barcelona plays in La Liga and they have all the possession of the ball and it's all intricate passing. The only times that they get running is when they get out in transition with Lamin Llamar when he's playing that outside of the left football to Rafinha. Those are the only times in which they get out running.

34:11But for the most part, teams are going to be sitting behind the ball and there's no space for Victor Jokeres to run into. And so are you telling me, are you telling me that this is the guy that you want to play a little give and go? a little one-two, a little intricate, a little something here, a little back heel action. Is this the guy that you want for that? I'm going to say no, no, no, no, no, no. Frank, you find this one funny too because you chuckled when I was mentioning the link between Joaquers and Barcelona. Yeah, because everybody will do the same, you know. As Ali said, no, no, no, no, no, no.

34:45Don't do that. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. That doesn't fit. No, no, no, no, no, no. Because that's what it is. that's the reality of it. We all, I think we know football and we have respect to every player, but you have to talk about somebody who can fit or not into a team and a tactic and the way that team plays. Gokieres doesn't fit at all. That's clear. That's obvious and we know that. So, no, it's not going to work. Don't even try. It's not going to be good for the player who's going to be lost and not going to touch any ball and try to find somebody else. Maybe try to find nobody because you don't have the money for it.

35:26So just play with the players you have. You know, if you have Gordon or you have Fermin or whoever he can be at front, even Olmo can play as a striker. Play like that. I think it's going to be enough, again, to win La Liga. Yeah, well, Jules, just final one on Jokeres to Barcelona before we let you go because Jokeres is still also just starting out life, really, at Arsenal. Is he someone that they would be willing to let go? I think it's hard to tell. We saw Kai Havertz starting ahead of him, obviously, in that community shield against City. I expect Kai Havertz to start the league on Friday night at the Emirates against Coventry.

36:06He's been very good in pre-season. When Giocares, obviously, has been more on the bench and coming on for Havertz. So it looks like maybe right now, the pecking order for that number nine position at Arsenal is Havertz first and then Giocares second. So maybe they are just open to everything. I think they need also that kind of competition between your number nine, these two different profiles. We expect Gabriel Jesus to leave the club so Arsenal can't really go through the season with only Kai Havertz. So even if Giocares was to leave, whether he went to Barcelona or anywhere else, they would have to replace him.

36:42And that's hard to do when there's only two weeks left on the transfer window, as we explained before. And it's not easy to find a prolific number nine. So I don't expect him to move. However, he might feel like he's not going to play much. Arsenal, if Kai Havertz is there, fit and ahead of him in that picking order, and might force a move. I don't think that's his style, although we saw that at Sporting when he signed for Arsenal. But again, I agree with Ali and Frank. He's not the right fit for Barcelona regardless. All right, so nobody a fan of this one. To put it in Ali's words, no, no, no, no, no, no.

37:12We didn't even need the big words today. We could have just said no, no, no, no, no. All right. Well, Jules, thank you so much for joining us. We'll catch up with you again soon. That's it for Jules? That's it for Jules. What's he going to fix? The wallpaper behind him or what? This is better than his French Chateau fake background. He did not like that one. That's not French. With a two lips that lips out. I don't know. No, no, no. That's not French. That must be English. Yeah, that wallpaper is very English. It's giving grandma English. But either way, Jules, we love you either way. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

37:46Merci, Jules, merci. Well, if you want to hear more from Julia Luron, he's back with Gab Marcotti for the first time since the World Cup with another edition of the Gab and Jules Show. He's not going to get a chance to talk if this is the first time back. It's the first time that they've been reunited. Make sure to check out the podcast. Fresh episode out now. As you know, managing maintenance, repair, and operations is never easy. But for the ones who always rise to the challenge, Grainger has your back. From professional-grade products you can count on to fast, dependable delivery, they're there to help you keep things running smoothly.

38:20Plus, their technical product specialists are here to help answer your toughest questions. And because Grainger knows safety is always a priority, they're committed to being your partner in protecting both your people and your facilities. Call 1-800-GRAINGER, click grainger.com, or just stop by. All right, well, before we go and get into some extra time questions, our Ale Moreno has had quite the fun weekend, Ale. Tell us about it, and we're going to show you a little bit, but tell us about it. Something to do with Houston Dynamo. Yes, the 20th anniversary of our MLS Cup win with the Houston Dynamo, and so they had the whole team.

38:56Oh, there he is. Oh, look at us. Look at us, and they had the whole team, and it's really the first has been together in 20 y to be able to share this experience and with our f our loved ones that were great memories. It's great the locker room in the qu room and that's what it w us sharing our memories, the love and appreciation uh, it was a great weekend of reminiscing, remembering, and feeling those moments that you don't have anymore. Once you retire, you no longer have those moments. That camaraderie. And I think Frank would agree that the thing that, as players, what we miss the most, while the competition was great and winning was great, the locker room, the relationships, that feeling that you have in common in working together for an objective, And then in this case, to be able to achieve the objective, which then allows you to 20 years later, come back together and be able to celebrate in the manner in which we did.

40:09It was a great weekend. Thank you to the Houston Dynamo organization. They were fantastic to us and it was a tremendous weekend for all of us. And I think it's something that we will never forget. I mean, I spent a lot of time with Ale Moreno and I don't think I have ever consistently seen him keep that smile on his face like I did in that video. Actually, I have once in Barcelona. In Barcelona, how does Barcelona-Ale compare to Houston-Ale? Well, this weekend, let's just say it was a great time in Houston. Yeah, it was a great time in Texas. It was a great time in Texas. Frank, you ever been to Texas?

40:44No, no, I just enjoy seeing Ali smiling with his teammates and former teammates. I hate the word nostalgia because we never live again something. But to see your teammates back, to be on the field together, to feel also the dressing room a little bit, the locker room, as you say, in the States, it's always something special. And you always want those times to be very rare but very precious. And you always want to celebrate something that you did together was something exceptional. So congratulations, mate. Thank you. Happy for you that you had that time this weekend. Leave it for Frank to get all sentimental when we need to wrap the show.

41:26But that's it for this edition of ESPN FC. Don't go anywhere, though, because Extra Time is next where we're going to get even more sentimental. Oh, okay. Oh, yeah. Let's do it. Wow, let's try it. Welcome into Extra Time, everyone. Alexis Nunes here back with Ale Moreno and a very sentimental Frank LaBeouf. We loved it. We're talking about camaraderie. Okay. I was struggling with that. That took a little while. I only had one coffee today. Can I also just say on that weekend with the Houston Dynamo and celebrating the 20th anniversary of the MLS Cup win, the uniform still fit. Oh. I put the uniform on when it went on.

42:05Well, not to everybody. I know. Not to everybody. I know. I put that thing on. I'm like, wait a minute. That's so good. Hey. You don't have to stock in as much. Look at that. Slim and shrimp. You know, it's tight in some areas, but it was, I mean, it was loose enough, you know. And. Well, well, well, well, you have to shake the tummy. Like shaking the little tummy. It's all right. It's okay, Frank. It could be worse. It could be a lot worse. Yeah, look at it. Oh, yes. Okay. It's respectable. You can have the full arm. Yeah. Be your belly. Yeah. It's respectable. I think it's respectable. It's very respectable.

42:44The other thing I would say is that you get to meet a lot of fans and people that come to you and they tell you, you spend a whole weekend telling you how great you are, right? And people come to you and they're so kind and so gracious and so appreciative of us being there. But one of the things that was very common is that they would tell me, I was there when you scored that bicycle kick or I was there when you did this and you guys were so great and your team was so awesome, right? And I was a kid and you were one of my favorite players when I was a kid. And then this same person then said, can you take a picture with my son?

43:19And I'm like, wait a minute. If you were a kid. And you have a kid. And now you have a kid. That means that I'm old. Just seasoned is what we call it. Yeah, well, yes, very better. So let's just say that I took a lot of pictures with kids. I still have some awkward, you know, people coming. Well, awkward. They're nice people, but they say, can I have a picture with you because my mother loved you? And they say, okay. As long as your mother is not your grandmother, that's fine. No, Frank, you're not up there. But it was great because you can see that there's generations, right? And these are new Houston Dynamo fans.

44:00And they had no idea who I was, but their parents were excited. And they were like, go take a picture with him. And they're like, I guess, fine, I'll take a picture. All right, let's get into some questions, shall we? The first one for our Frank LeBeouf. Frank, with Lance beating PSG in the Super Cup and coming within six points of them last season in the league, might PSG finally have a genuine title challenger that will force them to take the league seriously in the latter stages of the campaign, possibly to their UEFA Champions League detriment? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Again, again.

44:41Well, that's the thing about... We were talking about Arsenal during the show and Bayern Munich for the Bundesliga. That's the same for PSG. Unless PSG doesn't want to play the game, he's not really fit, he's not really tuned in, maybe you have a chance to do something. But if PSG wants to win, they're going to win the game, they're going to win the Liga, they might be able to win again the Champions League because they are the best team in the world. I'm so happy that Lens, because the club, I love the club. I played in Ballard, the stadium. It's amazing. It's an English stadium. The atmosphere, the greatest atmosphere that you can have in France.

45:20It's really special, and it's a small town, and you want them to be successful. And I really hope that you're going to be able to do that. But that will mean that PSG didn't do the work. That's as simple as that. But to put it in Ale's words, in terms of them being title challengers over PSG, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Next question. It is for Ale. Ale, rank these legendary midfield players in terms of their long-range passing ability. David Beckham, Xabi Alonso, Andrea Pirlo. Oh, come on, Pirlo. Right. So I'm going to go Andrea Pirlo, David Beckham, and then Xabi Alonso. There we go.

46:04I agree. Now, let's not get crazy. They could all hit a ball. Oh, yeah. They could all ping a pass. They could all switch the point of a tag. But I'm just going to say Pirlo, Beckham, and Xavi Alonso. And the reason I picked Pirlo is because I believe the range of his passing and the variety of his passing was slightly better than the other two. Oh, gosh. And I feel like he could pick out the ball and send it to me, and I could score. Just a little tap it. Let's not get crazy. Frank, do you agree with how Ale ranked them? Yeah, I agree. It's hard to say who the best because those three were capable of launching very long passes and be so accurate.

46:49So I agree. PLO was a masterpiece, but the two others as well. But yeah, you give a little margin to PLO, comparing to the others. All right. No arguments there. Next question. Oh, this one for both of you guys. Who was the best strike or defensive partner, I guess for Frank, you ever had in your professional career? Ale.

47:14Well, if we are saying with the national team that my strike partner was Juan Arango, because he plays sort of as a withdrawn kind of player, and he honestly went wherever he wanted to, and I was just running for him. But that's neither here nor there. I would say Juan Arango. But in terms of a striker partnership at club level, Guillermo Barras-Queloto, El Mechizo, that was so successful with Boca Juniors, and we played together, the Columbus crew. Back in the day, back in the glory days, we could ball it up. And what made it so easy to play with him is that you just have to make yourself available.

47:54Make the run, he'll find you. he had that sort of vision and I had that sort of understanding with him that he didn't even need to pick the head up. He knew where I was going to be. He delivered the pass and then it was up to me whether I was going to tap it in or not. Did you let him down how many times? Hold on. Let me answer the question before. That's a two-part question. How many times did you let him down, Ale? I'm just kidding. No, I'm not. Well, look, I'm sure there were plenty of times in which he said some choice words to me. But it was all in good banter. It was all in good banter. We love good banter.

48:31We love good banter. Frank, what about you? Best defensive partner? Best defensive partner, 100 % Marcel Desailles. Because we had a chance to play together for six years, seven years with the national team, but also three years with Chelsea. and we were understanding each other very well. He was nicknamed The Rock. It says a lot. I played against him when he was in Milan. He was a midfielder in front of Varese in Costa Cota. He was just a machine. The guy was a warrior, never let it go. In the World Cup in 1998, him and Emmanuel Petit were the two best players of our squad. everybody put Zidane on top of it, on top of everybody because he scored the two goals and and he had a very good ending of the World Cup.

49:28At the beginning he was great carded so he didn't play a lot and of course Zizou is Zizou but what Marcel de Sailly was capable of doing all games long and Emmanuel Fertitta was amazing. So Marcel is obviously, even if I play with somebody exceptional called Steve Clark, the Scottish national team, former national team coach, that I really enjoyed playing with him. Marcel Desailles will have to be on the top. I love me some Marcel Desailles. Love me. Right, next question. Ale, which U.S. men's national team player needs a strong upcoming season to stay in the picture for future call-ups for international duty?

50:10Cardoso, Moussa, Adjeman, Brendan Aronson, Gio Reyna, Aidan Morris, etc. Well, I would say all of the above, to be honest with you. The mystery of Johnny Cardoso and his national team performances doesn't quite match what he does at club level. That still remains something that needs to be sorted out by Pochettino and the United Statesman's national team. But Gio Reyna. I was going to say, it has to be Gio Reyna. Gio Reyna. And look, and Frank knows this very well. Gio Reyna is now going to play at Strasburg. If you can't enjoy Strasbourg, by the beauty of the city of Strasbourg, if you're not inspired by your surroundings to go and play well, then I don't know what else to tell you.

50:57It feels like this is the last chance for him to really do something significant with his career that goes beyond just kind of riding the bench and getting a few minutes here and there. this has to be a productive consistently productive season for Gio Reyna and Liga and Strasbourg yeah Frank I'm pretty sure you'd agree Gio Reyna needs something and I mean the beauty of Strasbourg surely yeah well be careful uh Mr. Reyna the food is very good the alcohol is very good in Strasbourg so don't go too much in the restaurant but otherwise yeah it's a we call it and and I thing is not proper to Strasbourg.

51:41We call it the little Marseille because of the craziness of the fans. But they are as crazy as the Marseille fans. The stadium is a little bit smaller. Marc Keller, my former teammate, the chairman of Strasbourg, made it a little bit bigger. And I have to go to see that because it's a huge change. But Strasbourg is a crazy city of football. And And if you give 100%, you can lift up your level and the career can finally get started for Reyna. Because we are talking about consistency. We don't want to see him being good every 10 games. That's the problem. We want him to be good every game, which will be very good for the U.S.

52:23Mayan national team. Yes, indeed. Final question now. What kind of gifts does Dan Thomas bring back while on duty in Spain? Dan even brings back gifts? To whom? To whom? Maybe to his family, but not us. Not his work, familia. No, stop. What? Nada. Zero. I do wonder, because I'm going to Spain to cover the same games that Dan is covering. But I'm here tomorrow doing the show. Nope, but Dan's not. Whereas Dan apparently is leaving tomorrow. Yeah. Does he need some time to sort of kind of get used to his surroundings while he's in Spain? Or he needs to rest? Maybe he's shopping for us, apparently.

53:07Oh, is he? Well, we will find out come next week. Because, I don't know, is Dan doing this show without you? Is he daring? Well, I'm merely suggesting that I'm leaving on Wednesday, as we were instructed to do. Because the games are Saturday and Sunday, right? Correct. I think when games are Saturday and Sunday, we go out there Wednesday, if not Thursday, start coverage Friday, Saturday, etc. But Daniel, Daniel Thomas. You know, he's, you know, experience. Experience. Yes, he's a seasoned veteran. Dan on work trips, especially to Spain, he knows how to do the gymnastics that Xhaka does when putting in vacation time.

53:47That is it. That is it. He knows how to maximize a work trip, let me tell you. Yeah, well, he's maximizing it right now. Frank, have you ever gotten any cute little trinkets from work trips from Dan? I don't expect anything from that Thomas. You know what it is? I know that when I go to the restaurant, I know that I have to put my credit card. Oh, he's never even buying him dinner? And put it on the table. Of course not. Of course not. He's like that. He's Dan Thomas. It's already hard for him to wear a trouser to go to the restaurant. That's true. Do you want him to pay on top of it? Forget about it.

54:26Well, there you go, Joe. I hope that answers your question. We've not received anything from Dan. But you notice the disdain and the sincerity. Yeah. The honesty from Frank. The first thing that he said there was, you never expect anything from Dan, Tommy. Truer words. Truer words have never been spoken. Have never been spoken. I mean, Dan has a court card. He can treat you, Frank. He can treat you to at least one company dinner. Whoa, whoa. Whoa, don't give him another loophole. I know. Maybe next time Frank's back. After they spent a whole, almost a whole World Cup together. All right. I would love that.

55:03Don't look at me. Don't look at me. Dan, come on. Come on. All right. Well, you definitely won't see Dan on any ESPN FCs tomorrow or Wednesday, but as of Thursday, look out for him in Spain. You'll see me tomorrow. You'll see Ale tomorrow. He's back with Kay Murray, and then I will be with Shaka on Wednesday. But still, ESPN FC every day of the week on the ESPN app.

55:48You've got to listen to this. Subscribe now to 2020 True Crime Plus. Add free, exclusive true crime content. Search 2020 True Crime Plus on Apple Podcasts and start your free trial. Terms apply.