In short
The episode centers on Barcelona’s LaLiga form after their Atlético Madrid match, debating whether they’re “back to their best” under Hansi Flick. The hosts argue Barcelona’s attack is excellent (Rafinha in strong form; Rafinha/Yamal as key outlets; Rafinha’s chest-and-pass moment to set up a chance) but their defense remains vulnerable, especially with a super-high line. Key issues cited: Pedri’s fitness concern (looks muscular, not just cramps), and center-back instability (Araujo taking time off; Christensen/Erik Garcia reshuffled; Gerard Martín playing out of position). They also discuss Atlético’s game plan, VAR-offside risk, and Thiago Almada missing a chance to equalize before Ferran’s late goal.
Notable examples
Lewandowski’s poor penalty (slip/technical mishap questioned), and the idea that Barcelona’s buildup collapses without Pedri’s creativity/tempo.
Guests
none mentioned; it’s just Gabby’s Jules and Gabby (hosts).
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Chapters
Tap a time to open that second in VOBarcelona vs Atlético Madrid Recap
0:45 to 3:14
Analysis of the recent match between Barcelona and Atlético Madrid, discussing tactics and player performances.
“But we're going to start in La Liga Jules.”
Barcelona's Defensive Struggles
3:14 to 7:14
Discussion on Barcelona's defensive issues and the impact of injuries on their performance.
“Things could have gone worse defensively from Atlético, which is a bit of a problem probably.”
Midfield Dynamics and Pressing Issues
7:14 to 11:24
Exploring the challenges in Barcelona's midfield and their pressing game.
“And he doesn't have the moving, and we saw that as well.”
Lewandowski's Penalty and Performance
11:24 to 14:02
Analyzing Lewandowski's penalty miss and his overall form this season.
“Midfield, I don't think he's going to get, because I mean, if you have to make a decision, that's not, people are going to go to him and say, well, wait a minute.”
Barcelona's Recent Struggles
14:02 to 21:40
Analyzing Barcelona's performance and the challenges they face this season.
“he's not perfect, he's getting older, he screws up, he screws things up a little bit because he doesn't get around the pitch the way he used to.”
Quick Hits from Around Football
22:16 to 28:00
Discussion on various football matches and performances from the week.
“Arsenal stay top of the Premier League with a 2-0 win over Brentford.”
Manchester City's Scary Win
28:54 to 30:08
Discussion about Manchester City's dramatic 5-4 win against Fulham.
“Manchester City get the three points, but a 5-1 lead in minute 56 turns into a 5-4 win against Fulham.”
Erling Haaland's Remarkable Milestone
30:09 to 33:10
Analyzing Erling Haaland's rapid scoring record in the Premier League.
“Erling Haaland scored his 100th Premier League goal in just his 111th Premier League game.”
Aston Villa's Resurgence
33:14 to 34:28
Aston Villa's comeback win against Brighton and Unai Emery's impact.
“who battled back to win 4-3 away to Brighton.”
Real Madrid's Performance Review
34:29 to 35:17
Discussion on Real Madrid's recent match and Xabi Alonso's management.
“I think Bilbao in some ways made it easier for them.”
Show all 22 chapters
Tottenham's Draw Against Newcastle
35:18 to 36:29
Analyzing Tottenham's performance in their 2-2 draw with Newcastle.
“Jewel, signs of life for the man with two first names?”
Tottenham's Draw Against Newcastle
37:28 to 37:51
Analyzing Tottenham's performance in their 2-2 draw with Newcastle.
“You think you know a browser, but Gemini and Chrome?”
VAR Discussions and Controversies
37:57 to 42:01
Debating the use of VAR for corner kicks and second yellow cards in football.
“I'm all for this same for the second yellows too if you think about the red card for Denmark against Scotland in that incredible World Cup playoff that would have never happened.”
The Importance of Fans in Football
42:01 to 43:38
Understanding the essential role of fans in football clubs and the implications of ownership decisions.
“Sometimes people do us deals, and we do them deals, right?”
Conte's Strategic Decisions in Matches
43:39 to 45:22
An analysis of Antonio Conte's management style and recent match strategies.
“And he also said something else that was really stupid beyond that, which is, by the way, isn't obvious.”
Violence in Football: The Nice Incident
45:23 to 47:11
Discussion on the disturbing events involving fans and players at Nice.
“Basically, I paraphrase, but that's what I meant.”
FIFA's Decision on AFCON Player Releases
47:12 to 48:46
Exploring FIFA's controversial decision regarding player release dates for AFCON.
“Nobody's saying that the people of Nice are criminals.”
Aitana Bonmati's Injury Impact
48:47 to 50:35
The implications of Aitana Bonmati's injury on her career and the Spanish women's team.
“starting with the weather and the rainy season and whatever else.”
Closure for Hillsborough: New Report Findings
50:36 to 52:59
Discussion on the recent report regarding the tragic Hillsborough incident and its aftermath.
“They beat France in the first one two years ago.”
Multi-Club Ownership and Its Implications
53:00 to 56:00
Examining the trend of multi-club ownership in football and its potential effects.
“involved in this they all retired so none of them faced prosecutions which again is another is another slap in the face I think Barry says your man are reportedly looking for an affiliate club just like Liverpool.”
Debate on Player Attitude and Recent Controversies
56:00 to 58:44
Discussion on a player's controversial statements and attitude, particularly regarding his awareness of Strasbourg's location and the implications for his career.
“And he's the club captain, by the way, too, and the best player as well.”
World Cup Draw and Celebrity Involvement
58:44 to 1:00:26
Preview of the upcoming World Cup draw and the involvement of sports legends, discussing rankings and personal opinions on various celebrities.
“We'll be tuning in all around the world, and it's going to be a star-studded event with legends from other sports too.”
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:00Are all batteries the same? That's like asking if all soccer players are the same. Take Messi, the most decorated player ever. Is there any other player who has achieved that? No, just him. Now take Duracell. Is there any other battery with Power Boost ingredients inside? No, just Duracell. Remember, goats only trust goats because they're built different. And Messi only trusts Duracell.
0:35I'm Gabby's Jules, Gray Skies over West London, but that's okay because we're here to brighten things up. Yeah. Very gray over Stamford Bridge after that horrendous performance, wild stuff at Fulham, but City win. But we're going to start in La Liga Jules. Barcelona against Atlético Madrid. Now going into this, we saw it the weekend. I mean, both teams rotate a little bit, but Atleti changed a lot. They changed a ton. They had a plan, and it didn't work out. I thought Barcelona absolutely wiped the floor with them in difficult circumstances as it happened. I mean, given the fact that we had to see Gerard Martin at centre-back, given that Pedri now there's an issue, this could have been worse.
1:28I was impressed with what they put together. It's still a flimsy, but
1:32Julien Laurens:yeah, Flick said it was the best game in a while, which I kind of agree with, although Thiago Almada has a good chance to make it 2-2. Bayern opened the scoring too. So it was not perfect again defensively from a Barcelona point of view, but going forward, they are quite a fantastic team. So it's the same that we say a lot really. Defensively, there are a lot of issues. I still think that they missed Frankie de Jong in that midfield. And defensively, Martin and Kubasi as two centre-backs is difficult, really. So I really think that Atletico could have taken advantage of it. And they were not far from it, really.
2:09Julien Laurens:Especially if you consider that Gerard Martin could have been centre-off or maybe should have been centre-off even. So things could have turned differently. But going forward with the ball, Barcelona are just so good. And Rafinha is also in this kind of form. Plus, I mean, it's pretty good. I'd be surprised given that he's played a front two virtually the whole year. And given that, you know, he kind of set up that way. All right, I didn't expect Soros to start. But you do have Griezmann and you do have Raspardori. To play Julian on his own, you know, with sort of Baena and Nico floating behind.
2:44I thought that was part of a plan. But I also thought that plan was kind of thrown out when they lost Cardoso so early.
2:50Julien Laurens:Yeah, there was a few injuries in that game. Cardoso included in that kind of double pivot. Baena has played off the striker a lot recently. I think he likes him a lot and he took his goal really well, to be fair. It's just, I just don't think, I think they had to defend better to just stop Barca scoring. And like you said, Lewandowski, Mr. Penel, I think a really poor penalty from him. Things could have gone worse defensively from Atlético, which is a bit of a problem probably. going forward I think they did what we expected them to do but defensively it was more of a struggle really well you said we would expect them to do which is what play on the counter but that plan obviously they they took the lead via VAR correct decision and we know that that's almost like one of those I don't want to call it self inflicted and people have gone over the high line over and over again but it is a continuous risk right because let's be real about this when the run happens and the pass happens, it's not like the forward knows that he's offside or he's onside, right?
3:55When it's that close. You're always gambling and it's always a gamble. So I think we can put that to one side. I did think, though, with those defenders, you know, maybe you can put together a different threat rather than the quick having sort of going for the quicker guys, whether you want to call it Nico or Or by now the technical guys, I'm going more for the heavier side guys. You know, I think starting sort of at the weekend and then you lose them, especially once Koke comes into the game. Why not do something more bold? Because you know where this is heading.
4:33Julien Laurens:But I think that's the plan for the second half. And they did that. And to be fair, there were moments in the second half when they looked good. And again, Thiago Almada should have really scored to make it 2-2 at the time before the late-leg goal by Ferran. So in a way, you could look at it from an atletico point of view and think, okay, it kind of worked. Why try to do it at the beginning, but I now open the scoring. They were 1-0 up. They should have been 11 v 10. In the second half, they obviously changed, and they've got depth in their squad. We say it's a really good squad that they have.
5:03Julien Laurens:They changed, and they almost benefited from it. In the end, I know another night Barca could be 3-0 up by the time. It would have been a smash and grab, I think, had they equalized. Yeah, yeah, for sure. But they were not far either, again. How serious? We're going to talk about the center back situation because I think this is really serious. Pedri, again, there's going to be questions now about his fitness. Yeah, it looked on television. They were hoping that it was just cramps. It looked more like no cramps. It looks muscular. Yeah. And that's another question mark. All right, Jules, let's try to understand this a little bit better.
5:42We have to talk about, I wish we didn't have to talk about Barcelona's defending, but we have to. I think we shared the view on the high lines. We don't need to spend too much time on it, which is it's okay to play that way. If you have the right players to do it, who can execute, there's a right way to do it. And there's a wrong way to do it too often. It's the wrong way. And people would say Barcelona are still top of the table. Yeah. But they still leak too many goals and they look too shaky. Yeah. Because they simply haven't put resources into defenders. In this case, again, I'm not an Eric Garcia fan, but right now you have Ronald Araujo who's deciding that he's going to take time off.
6:21Personal reasons, even if they weren't there, the footballing reasons are why he shouldn't be on the pitch. Andreas Christensen's a guy who's been constantly in and out, came on this time. Obviously, he didn't think he was ready to start. And so once De Jong goes down in midfield, he decides to move Eric Garcia there. Again, he's in training every day. He sees this. But I think it's a huge call, and it sends a huge negative message as well to Mark and Mark. I know Bernal, who looked so good before his long injury, came back. I know he's had some issues. I know Casado hasn't been on the level that he was at last year, but at least those two guys are midfielders.
6:59Yeah, yeah. At least those two guys can impersonate De Jong a little bit. And it looked to me, by moving Eric Garcia, who, as you know, I don't like as a footballer, as a person. I'm sure he's lovely. you weaken the center back position because then you have to play Gerard Martín there, who's not a center back.
7:15Julien Laurens:No, he's a left back, yeah. And he's 6 '1". Yeah, yeah. And he doesn't have the moving, and we saw that as well. Yeah, yeah, completely. I guess he's left-footed though, so he can play on the left side of that center back, Kubarsi on the right-hand side. He's a very young, obviously, pairing too. I also think that the problem is not so much them and their mobility. I mean, it is to a certain point. But it's also what they do in midfield in terms of pressuring the ball. And Eric Garcia cannot do that because he just doesn't have that energy. And Pedri is obviously very busy doing other things than thinking about, you know, I should press the ball and close it down.
7:53Julien Laurens:Otherwise, it's going to go over the top and we're going to struggle. That's why this midfield too. I'm not sure if Casado would sort this out either, to be fair. But that's why this midfield doesn't work. And that's why this midfield, even the De Jong-Pedri one, is a bit more difficult to play with a high line behind because of that. So, but we can talk as much as we want about it. Nothing's going to change. I thought three weeks ago that he tweaked that flick, tweaked it a little bit. And they were a little bit more cautious, not going all in. but on looking at this game and the one at the weekend it's clear that they go back to the super super high line, super aggressive that I think through the rest of the season if they keep that, will cause them a lot of trouble I think, like you said, it can work A, if the defenders are higher quality and these guys simply aren't because athleticism can make up for tactical mistakes or misreadings.
9:01If there is a press, if they make better decisions, which I don't know that they necessarily have the experience to do that, to be honest. And if, and all three things have to happen, you get the right kind of press further forward. And I'm surprised. I know Danny Omo came off injured. Like you said, he was in good form. But Daniomo does come before he came to Barcelona. He was at a team that, you know, did a lot of pressing centrally. So you should have the mindset for that. Ferran Torres, I think, can do it because he's got the mindset to do it. I mean, whatever you fought Ferran Torres for, I don't think work rate is one of those things.
9:43Fermin, when fit, can do it. The questions become maybe Rafinha and Laminya Mao. Yeah, although it doesn't come from,
9:52Julien Laurens:the balls in behind never come from there. They come from higher up. So you can press the build-up phase of the opposition, sure, but they're never going to hit the ball from the box over the defensive line from Barcelona. So he comes, that's why I mentioned the midfield. When they're pressing so far up the pitch, we've seen it. We've seen players running from their own half. Yeah, but the ball comes from a midfielder, rarely from the opposition's box, all over the top to a runner from their own box, behind the line of Barcelona's defence. So for me, it's more Garcia, Pedri, Pedri, Casado, Casado, Bernal, whatever combo there in that midfield that need to do a better job.
10:31Julien Laurens:Not so much that front three or even front four who will disturb the build-up phase for sure, but it's after that, it's the phase after that really that is the big problem. And I think Flick is trying to address, it's just difficult. Well, it's difficult because I don't know if, I don't know at what point the club looks internally and says, why do we make these decisions? Is this what Flick wanted? Obviously, unlike, say, Glasner, Flick isn't going to come out and say this in public. But I think we definitely, I mean, we were at the stage where they need to make a movement for somebody at the back in January.
11:13Julien Laurens:Yeah. And in midfielder, he wanted another midfielder in the summer. You understand why? like a different profile to the ones that he has who are, you know, for some quite similar, but center back is needed for sure. Midfield, I don't think he's going to get, because I mean, if you have to make a decision, that's not, people are going to go to him and say, well, wait a minute. Okay. Sweetie, you have Pedri and De Jong and both marks and Guti. And, you know, you know, there's going to be some other kid. We saw Drogh come on, but there's going to be another kid that's good, that we can rely on. so I don't think that so much I don't think it's going to happen the question is with a defender do you go for a short term solution do you maybe even somebody on loan or do you actually go and spend money and if you spend money do you need to sacrifice somebody yeah do they have the money yeah and if you need to sacrifice somebody is there anybody you can sacrifice because this is as absurd as it sounds Barcelona are in a situation where the players that they could move that would fetch a fee aren't players that they want to move, like Rafinha or Amal or whatever, or they're players that nobody's going to want, or they're injured.
12:30There's a world in which you have fake Guti, and maybe you want to move him on because you don't see a spot for him in the 11 because you make different choices, right? Guti as in Gavi, you mean? Gavi, sorry. flashback but that's not we're not two years ago or Ter Stegen despite his wages they tried all summer with Fermin people aren't going to give you 60 million for Fermin maybe they should because he does a lot of work so that's where they're really stuck yeah I think so
13:03Julien Laurens:and again we don't really know how much money they have if they don't have to sell first to go and get somebody could it be a loan again Could it be somebody whose contract runs down in the summer so it'd be a bit cheaper? So if you, but Bayern are not going to let Upamecano go or Liverpool Connacht or Palace Gay or players like that who are out of contract in the summer, for example. It's a bit tricky, but as we've been saying all season, something that they should have addressed in the summer and it's pretty, as good as Rashford has been for them, I would have 100 % got for centre-back then instead of, even on loan, instead of having gone for him.
13:43Well, I've been saying that all season long, so I'm on board with you there. Further up the pitch, Lewandowski's penalty, again, you're the Techers guy. People look at it, and they're going to make fun of Lewandowski. I'm sure there's a good, and he is, like, when we see stuff like that, I got a little angry, right? I defended Lewandowski on this one in the sense that he's not perfect, he's getting older, he screws up, he screws things up a little bit because he doesn't get around the pitch the way he used to. However, when you hit a penalty like that, clearly there's either a slip or some sort of technical mishap.
14:16Julien Laurens:Yeah, it's just, it's a bad one. I mean, you saw the reaction of, you know, the fans in the stands, even the players who are, were in the stands because of injuries like Gavi. It was half like they could not believe it, and half they were thinking like, this is ridiculous. Is there a slip? I don't think so. What was he trying to do? I'm not really sure. It's quite unlikely because it's quite reliable on penalties. usually. Maybe not so much this season. So I, yeah, it's hard to understand. But maybe just you're right. He's not in confidence. He's not as sharp as he used to. So it's not, you didn't see.
14:49Julien Laurens:It's been a difficult season really in and out of the team. Oh, very difficult. Because Ferran has done well when he played instead of him. I was hoping you would tell me that there was a slip or some movement or something or his foot angle isn't what it should be for some reason. No, I wish I could. But no, I don't think so. Sorry, Leva. but we try to, I really, really tried this time. No, no, no. We're with you. That's another position where they need to add. That's the eternal debate, you know, like, so if we're not sure that there are money for a center buy, that potentially you could find one for, I don't know, let's say 30 million euros.
15:23Julien Laurens:If you want a top number nine, this is not going to be 30 million. And we're talking about 60 minimum, and they definitely don't have that money right now. So I don't know where you go. I don't know if you keep him another year. I don't know if Ferran is the answer. I mean, that's a summer move if it happens. Yeah, anyway, yeah, summer. It won't be in January, but it's a big job for them. You might like a lot of profiles, but you need the money to be able and the salary space in your salary cap to be able to attract them. Well, he would clear a lot of, he'd sell a ton of money, so he would clear that.
16:01Yeah, true. That is the good news, I guess. Absolutely, if you replace him, yeah. Maybe there's a functional striker you can get. Maybe somebody doesn't need to start every game. Maybe sometimes you go with Ferran Torres. Maybe sometimes it's him. You can muddle through that way. It's a big summer. There's some really big calls. For a team that we don't know what they're going to do. I feel like they could win the Champions League and La Liga or at the same time totally flame out because there's so many inconsistencies. Yeah, yeah. But I guess maybe... For those who like good football and technical players, maybe that's a good thing.
16:35Maybe it's a reminder that so many things can go wrong in the structure, in the tactics, but then if you have a genius or a couple geniuses on your team, that can paper over a lot of crap. That's why we love the game, right?
16:47Julien Laurens:Exactly. Absolutely. And there's a few teams like that all over Europe this season too, you know. All right. We haven't had confirmation of how Lampetti is going to be out for, but what does Barcelona look like? without without pedri how do we how do you plug that because clearly you move in when the young returns clearly the young plus casador de young plus eric garcia or whatever yeah it's just even on the ball i mean forget what before we said it doesn't work defensively but even on the ball absolutely you're lacking in creativity you're lacking in in tempo and then everything goes on yamal and rafinha yeah even more and how to get the ball to them you know quickly but not not through like centre-back, centre-back, right-back, Lamin kind of thing.
17:32Julien Laurens:There's a moment in the second, first half of the second half of the game on Tuesday where Barca are trying to play out from the back again. The ball comes to Pedri, kind of backheels it to, I think, Rafinha already, who gives it back to him in a really difficult way. He's in the air. There's a guy, he's between two Atletico Madrid players and Pedri still manages to chest the ball and then hit it like into the path of Rafinha. It's just an incredible piece that not even De Jong, I think, can do. Certainly doesn't have that kind of sharpness in him to do it. Eric Garcia, let's not even go there.
18:11Julien Laurens:Casado, neither, I think. You're going to lose so much. On top of that, Daniel Moore, as we mentioned, he's injured. Fermin is injured. So I'm not even sure who you put as a tent. Probably Ferran and Lewandowski, then Rafinha. You could look to move Rafinha inside, maybe. yeah and Rashford on the left that could be but whatever you do that means you change your that kind of front six if you want your double pivot and then the front four completely for the Betis game on on Saturday that is huge now and if there's a team that you don't want to face with half of your starters out plus that dodgy high line and your midfield you're not sure is this Betis team especially in Sevilla so this game on Saturday could be very difficult for them, I think.
18:53And I think more broadly, and then look, I want to remind everybody we don't want to be super negative. More broadly, what you said about Yamal and the way you get the ball to Yamal, I think back, I mean, to me this was most obvious in the semifinal against Inter in the Champions League last season, but we've seen it many, many times. Things aren't going to plan. Pedri's shut down. And then the only game plan is they get the ball to Yamal. And if the other team just sits and defends, it means Yamal gets the ball with four guys in front of him, which then means Yamal has to essentially really risk putting his body on his line because he takes people on.
19:35When there's guys around him, you know, he's going to he's going to get fouled. OK, fine. I pick up a set pieces. But so what? This is a whole team of Smurfs anyway. And by the way, let's not talk about the center backs who are both one meter 80 at this stage. That is what you want to avoid because just the pressure on this kid.
19:55Julien Laurens:Yeah, I mean, I meant more. Physical and mental. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think he can take it though. I meant more getting him the ball in what part of the pitch because if you get the ball to Koundé and Koundé finds Lamin, he's by the line, by the touchline, he's back to goal, very often on the halfway line. It's difficult. If in the second phase of your buildup, your midfielders can find him in the last third of the pitch, for example, facing maybe the opposition goal, that's a very different story. So this is it. And for me, that's also part of the problem would be if Pedri is out for another spell, which unfortunately looks like the case.
20:34Yeah, but there's not going to be a second phase of the buildup if you go and play a team that parks the bus. That's the difficulty. And I think, I don't know. I think there's so many big decisions, so much pressure on Flick, freshly puts on himself. And a lot of it also is going to be concerning Yamal because there have been physical issues. Again, I think this is a lot for somebody who's 18 years old. He's playing a lot more. He's carrying much more of the responsibility than Messi or Cristiano or certainly Holland and probably Mbappe too. And I think everybody should be mindful of that.
21:38We'll be right back. We're undefeated. Lays, the official sponsor of the FIFA World Cup 2026. 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. Plus, 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 and protecting both your people and your facilities.
22:11Call 1-800-GRANGER Clickgrainger.com or just stop by. All right, enough Barca. How about some quick hits instead? Let's go, Gav. Arsenal stay top of the Premier League with a 2-0 win over Brentford. Jules, I thought this was actually much more one-way traffic although the second goal came late. Yeah. But that David Raya save was big.
22:31Julien Laurens:Yeah, big save on the header on that corner. the only the thing I would say and it's being big picky because they were solid still apart you know I know they were that safe but I think they would have won the game regardless anyway they could have scored more goals I felt in the second half Arsenal lost a bit of control which I didn't like it became a basketball game almost and they were trying to instead I don't know instead of just keeping the ball and calm it all down they went they were going like Rice was running 50 yards with the ball Martinelli was there was too much verticality when there was no need to be really.
23:06I think I noticed that a little bit too, the back and forth, and I kind of chalked it up to, let's put this game to bed. Let's get the second goal and kill the game. And maybe it wasn't the right call, but they were so superior. I don't think they had to be. Maybe that's... Yeah, but that plays into Brentford's hand
23:24Julien Laurens:because you then lose the ball. You're not... Your structure defensively, especially off position, is not ready. Your rest defense was obviously, as always, is very good even with the players missing in the rotation. But then that pressure came back very quickly to you because you lost the ball far too quickly. So it was better the last 20 minutes or so when they regained control and then they scored that second goal, which was not a coincidence. I thought for a minute, I was like, oh, Muscira's injured. And then I thought to myself, okay, but Saliba's coming back. You've got Timber who can play center back.
Read the full transcript
23:56You've got Benoit who can play center back. You've got Calafiori who can play center back.
24:00Julien Laurens:I think you're pretty much stacked. I know, I know. Let's hope it's not too serious for Mascara either. Chelsea 4-3-1 away. Leeds gab after one of the best performances of the season on Sunday. Comes one of the worst. Yeah, there may have been worse performances this season. This is absolutely horrible. This went back and played into the notion that when there's no Caicedo and there's no Cole Palmer. Palmer not for a long time. We saw Palmer the last half hour. He's not fit. It's not the real Palmer. He still maybe could have had that goal. Yeah, yeah. This is such a breakdown. As a third goal, obviously, it's a brain fart from Tosin.
24:39Fine. But the first one, the header, when Dalap completely loses his man. I don't. Yeah. Bro, you're a professional footballer. Your dad was a professional footballer. Chelsea signed you because you're supposed to be strong and aggressive. All we've seen from you is the aggression side. Also, Chelsea really struggled to press when he's on the pitch. I don't know if it's a question of...
25:03Julien Laurens:The goal is his fault, but he was not assigned to mark defenders who are better than him in the air, stronger than him. I would not have put him to mark Biot personally. And it's obviously a half man-to-man marking and so no marking, which they struggled with pretty much the whole game. For me, this is on Maresca. I understand the rotation. Everybody rotated this midweek. It's normal. They've got a game at the weekend and Champions League, then again. So it's a lot of games. But Enzo and Andre Santos, in a game like this, when you know exactly what these are going to do, he's being so aggressive in that midfield.
25:38So you would have put Rhys James back in the midfield and asked Rhys James to start two games in four days.
25:43Julien Laurens:Yeah, I mean, just even play an hour. But certainly there was no need. Enzo should have never played in this position. We said it on Monday's show. Enzo cannot play there. It's not his bag. Enzo cannot play there. He was a burden for the team. As was the lap. Can we say that? Yeah. There's this folly of financializing players, but you need to move them around every year. What is the purpose of... This wouldn't have happened with Nico Jackson. No. Honestly, would you rather have Nico Jackson... Would Chelsea be... I'm just going to... Simple yes or no question. Was Chelsea a better team this season with Nico Jackson or with the lap?
26:17Julien Laurens:Yeah, but the lap has been injured for a while. But I don't think the Joe Pedro... Or even fit the lap. I don't think the Joe Pedro, the lap kind of 10-9 works anyway. No. Especially not in a game like this. Bayern are through in the German Cup with a 3-2 win at Union Berlin. Jules, the underlying numbers suggest this time our boy Vinny got rather lucky. And he played a strong lineup. You want to look at these numbers? Yeah, I mean, Union Berlin had two penalties. So obviously the 2.7 XG is taken massively by 1.6. Okay, so then at 1.6 to 0.74, it's still Union Berlin, right? It's 1. Yeah, it's 1 to 0.74.
26:56Julien Laurens:And the Union were good. They were good on set pieces. their XG on set pieces is higher than the XG. Bayern took six shots on goal. Yes, all six on target, by the way, which is rare enough to mention. So weird. But you're right, they were not into it. They got lucky to qualify. I'm always surprised by the strong team and maybe he played a strong team because Union gave them a lot of trouble in the league already. They're the only team in the league that took points away from them. So maybe he knew it was a tricky game. No sweat, though, for Inter in the Coppa Italia, Gabriela, they roll pass second flight, Venezia 5-1.
27:29Julien Laurens:Yeah, I find out what Andy Juuff does. Yeah, he plays in the Coppa Italia. No, but he's... Probably is born and bred as well. You should have been proud of him. When he arrived, he was presented as a 10. No, no, no. Put him on the flank for Denzel Dumfries. He'll give you a game. Marcus Terram scoring as well, which is nice to see. Then we got Esposito. All good. Venezia, not very good. There's a reason in the second flight. I am one of Moutinui. On July 10th. Molly, you will board my boat and restore the heart of Te Fiti. And here we go. The journey begins. See her light up the night in the sea.
28:05She calls me. The ocean chose you. Let's go save the world. I got your back chosen one. Disney's Moana. Boat's neck. His name is Heihei. His name is Yum-Yum. When he goes in my tum-tum. In theaters July 10th. Rated PG. Parental guidance suggested. Pays Checkout is offered by your banks and credit unions. So when you shop online at participating merchants, your cards appear in one place, ready to use and kept up to date. And the best part, your actual card number isn't shared when you check out. Because boundaries are healthy, like no work emails after six. One small step for boundaries, one big leap for checkout.
28:45Pays, it checks out. Activation required. See Pays.com to learn more. Terms and conditions apply. Jones, we're not done because we have more quick hits. Yes. Wild stuff at Craven Cottage. Manchester City get the three points, but a 5-1 lead in minute 56 turns into a 5-4 win against Fulham. And some scary moments at the end for Pep. This whole idea of Pep is all about control. We control it now. No more control.
29:11Julien Laurens:You're controlling nothing right now. Yeah, there's no more control. That evolution that we've been mentioning a lot on the show is part of the reason why it's like that. the Pep Linders influence on the verticality, the pressing, anything you want. I still think this is a badly balanced team anyway, whether you want the control, the structure, anything to do with the ball, because Gvardz has to save on the line. It's not really on the line. I don't think Josh King's ball is going in any way. But it was a bit scary. You remember the old motto from Johan Cruyff, I would rather win 5-4 than 1-8.
29:46Julien Laurens:This is BS. We all know that. if you ask Pep. It's not even what Pep believes. Exactly, true. So this was entertaining for a neutral like us, sure, watching it. And there's a lot of good things up to 5-1, but certainly the last 40-odd minutes are terrible. Coming on the back of the Leeds game, which was very similar. Yeah, he's got to work on something. And Gabi, in that game, Erling Haaland scored his 100th Premier League goal in just his 111th Premier League game. Put this in context for us, please. it's pretty remarkable when you compare it to the other goal scorers. Alan Shearer did it in 124.
30:23And by the way, I have to put my proviso out there that this, this number is a bit for Gazi because the Alan Shearer played top flight football in England before the premier league started. So this is just limited to premier league games. Kane 141, Aguero 147. I think about Holland is even in this game, he could have had a hat trick. He is a one man wrecking crew. and it does feel like the team completely plays for him, just like the team, you know, played for Kane or whatever. But these are unbelievable numbers, and if you're a Premier League fan, you're blessed to have him here. Anorti Mukiele Ongo allows Liverpool to get a draw at home to Sunderland, but that only happens thanks to my boy Federico Queza running the leg of the pitch to spook Wilson Isidore into absolutely squandering that winner, that chance for winner.
31:15Do we need another positivity corner here to cheer up Liverpool fans?
31:18Julien Laurens:Remind me, who let Isidore on his own? Oh, your boy Kiesa as well. So he made up for the mistake, right? Yeah, it was. I'm sorry, if Liverpool scored the other end, because that was off a set piece, wasn't it? So if they scored, then it doesn't matter. Yeah, but he didn't score. And the keeper get the ball and then saw Isidore on his own and just hooped the ball. Well done for making up for his mistake for Kiesa. He's not a defender. Very true. That's very true. I thought it would be better. We said on Monday, I wanted to keep the same team. And it did, apart from Robertson and Kirkus. But the front four was the same.
31:56Julien Laurens:Because I thought there would be some improvement. And in the end, there wasn't. And Sunderland are a better team right now than Liverpool, even at Anfield. So it's probably a fair result. I'm not sure where you go from there. Salah benched again, obviously. Came on for the last half hour, did nothing either. I'm not sure really what you turn, because I really thought what we saw against West Ham could be the start of something, and clearly this game showed that. Probably not. Didn't help Isaka either. And I talked about Mo Salah, Gabi. On the bench again, what did you make of him? Look, I mean, Slott came out and spoke about it.
32:30Well, he's not the only one who's happy when he's out. That's fine. My concern here, and why this is more serious, is it's not like you're benching him because he's going away anyway. Let's find a way of playing. It's that the system you have in place, the guy who's replacing him in the team is a guy who plays completely different. It's a completely different profile. It's a completely different style. Which means that if this setup works, and by the way, it's still very TBD to see if it works with Salah Besslay on the right, when Salah comes back, he's going to disrupt things if he goes into the right wing, or you're going to have to change again.
33:02Or maybe you play Salah at center forward because Isak hasn't improved. I don't know. But it's a really, really big call and I'll be really curious to see if he gets more starts ahead of the Afghan. Oli Watkins shines for Villa, who battled back to win 4-3 away to Brighton. By the way, Oli Watkins set some ups and downs this year. I was very happy for him. Jules, it's now eight wins in nine Premier League games for Unai Emery, which means I'm forced to continue asking you about them.
33:33Julien Laurens:Yeah, I mean, incredible turnaround. They were 2-0 down away at Brighton, and then they got to 4-2 and then 4-3, obviously. And it was a bit tense in the end because Beza, who replaced Martinez just during the warm-up when Martinez got back spasm, made an amazing save on a Welbeck header to keep the win for Villas. So I don't think their margins have been that great, even against Leeds, when they won 2-1. It's Emery Blackmagic. It's Emery. He looks like a little vampire, and that's what he's doing. The only defeat in that is the nines. Liverpool, by the way, who obviously can't beat anybody apart from Villa, the most informed team in the league, which is remarkable, really.
34:12Julien Laurens:They share their goals a lot. They're very good on set pieces. They're obviously very solid physically, too. So the game against Arsenal on Saturday would be very cool, I think. Amadou Anane is a gem, by the way. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Real Madrid, this try, let it be club, they build both 3-0. And who else? Paris-Borne-Bred, Kylian Mbappe, my boy, Bax. Two goals. All good now for Xabi Alonso, Gabi? No, I don't think so. I mean, obviously, yeah. So you know that Bilbao were terrible. This was a very good performance. I think Bilbao in some ways made it easier for them. Vini could have had a couple of goals as well, but I think you have to module on the opponent.
34:49Bilbao were terrible. I did not expect, I know they've had the rough time. They've been bad in big games. I did not expect them to sink so low. I still don't know if this Carmovina-Tormany thing is something that you can do on a consistent basis without angering everyone. I don't think this is the right lineup for Real Madrid, but right now it obviously is. And as we said, Mbappe papers over a lot of cracks. Kuti Romero scores twice, a second in overhead kick, deep in injury time, and Spurs come from behind twice at St. James Park to draw 2-2 at Newcastle. Jewel, signs of life for the man with two first names?
35:20Julien Laurens:I don't know, because there were very bad Spurs in this game. They weren't lucky on the penalty given to Newcastle because that's never a penalty, and it's another mistake from Howard Webb and his people. Just describe the penalty, because I thought this was completely absurd. You give that penalty, it's Benton Kaur and Bern going at it with each other, grabbing each other, not just Benton Kaur. Benton Kaur is not looking at the ball. I know this is a problem. But if you give this one, you give 10 penalties per game in the Premier League. I don't have a problem with the whole giving 10 penalties per game, but then you have to do that and people will stop doing it.
35:52That situation, if you believe Benton Kaur, who I think weighs about half as much as Dan Bern, you know, come on.
36:00Julien Laurens:And then, I mean, the best bit was maybe Richarlison trying to get a penalty with the most ridiculous diving straight after that. So, Romero saved the day again. Frank said he was a brilliant overhead kick. He wasn't. He was one of the worst overhead kicks you've ever seen. But they all count. No, the kick itself was fine. It's the way it just trickles. It trickles through. It's with his shin. Massive. But on top of that, it trickles through like 50 people. That's what I mean. One of the worst. But they all count. Ibrahim Maza scored the only goal as Bayer Leverkusen, get revenge by winning 1-0 in the Pokal against Borussia Dortmund.
36:32Yeah, I didn't know who this dude was before this season. Not really, but he's been... That season was amazing in the second division. I don't watch second Bundesliga. Sorry, I leave that to Ryan O 'Hanlon and you, evidently. Yeah, Argentina International. But, yeah, phenomenal. There may be an issue, though, with Sir Hu Kirasi again, coming off the bench, wasn't happy at the weekend, watch his space. I don't think Fabio Silva is the answer here.
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37:45Julien Laurens:Check responses set up required, compatibility and availability varies 18+. we may get VAR for both corner kicks and second yellow cards at the world cup jewels uh are you okay with this yeah I know Sean Deitch likes the corner kick yeah yeah of course um I'm all for it as long as it's quick so we don't spend five minutes debating if it's a corner or not for that team but if you think about the first goal that Villa considered yesterday which was obviously thanks to the replay in five seconds you could tell that it was not a corner but a goal kick then that goal would have been would not have happened.
38:21Julien Laurens:I'm all for this same for the second yellows too if you think about the red card for Denmark against Scotland in that incredible World Cup playoff that would have never happened. It was not a second yellow and Christensen should not have been sent off. So for this, as long as it's quick, I can't I would not want it if it takes five minutes to decide. Yeah, I mean I think the corner kicks, I think we said, should be quick. There's not that many instances where you really have a doubt about it. I agree. I don't think it's quite that big a deal in the sense that actually not that many, I mean, I don't know if anybody keeps count of this, but how many goals have been given?
39:02I mean, I know it does happen, and they win a lot of World Cup, but it just doesn't happen very often. It's not a lot of lucky that God is targeting Sean Dyche. The second yellow is the argument against it that people always make. It's like, Like, oh, but then it's a slippery slope. What if the second yellow is legitimate and the first yellow isn't? Well, my answer to that would be, I'm sorry, if you get a nonsense first yellow, you just accept it, and then you act smarter, and you don't get the second yellow. Players do this all the time. They adjust the way they play so that you don't pick up the second yellow.
39:37So I'm in favor of this. I don't know if I want it in UEFA competitions. for something like the World Cup where the stakes are like this, I'm open to it.
39:46Julien Laurens:Juventus also advanced in the Copa d 'Italia with a 2-0 win over Udinese and Gab. We finally saw some Jonathan David. I thought he was man of the match. And look, he can play center forward. And what did I tell you? Did I not say this? I said, hey, just because Dusan Vlaovic, who people didn't like and Maud didn't want, and now then all of a sudden, it's like he was the most important player in the history of Juventus. And he's injured for three months anyway. He's injured. Jonathan David will be here next year. Luis Openda will likely be here next year. Right? This is your future. Use this as a time to imagine a future without Vlaovic.
40:22I thought it was a good win. It's time! It's time! It's Texter time! Jules, Leon announced around about$200 million in losses, but that's not the main reason we're talking Texter today. And it involves our other buddy, Mr. Marinakis,
40:39Julien Laurens:who's being dragged into this. Yeah, of course. I mean, there's nothing we didn't know or suspected. But this is so self-inflicted. This is so unnecessary from Texter. Texter went on to this YouTube show in Brazil, as you do. Obviously, I think it lasted like three hours, that show or whatever. And in there, he openly said, and publicly, because you can go and check it on YouTube, that, of course, him and Marienakis had a little arrangement on some transfer fees. players like N 'Kate and Mangala both for 60 million package I'm like hang on who? You know Matt Turner or Matt Turner and Danilo were going to come for an incredible amount of money as well and Texas said oh that's what you do in football between friends and you know basically saying that that suited Marinakis and then when Marinakis bought some Botafogo players then they did the same and i'm like okay one why are you saying it publicly two in a way don't worry jt because we we can all see it we knew the value of those players and we knew that there was something dodgy there yeah and i think the main thing here um look he defended himself saying well the translation wasn't great and i'm like okay transition wasn't great you can see it he's speaking in English.
42:02Exactly. What transition in what language? So what are you talking about? But secondly, what he's saying is that, look, if you have a business relationship with somebody, you may cut them a break, you know, maybe because you want to continue doing business with them, and they may cut you a break, and this happens in other industries. And this is fine, and it's true, right? Sometimes people do us deals, and we do them deals, right? Because we want to keep the relationship. However, there's one big difference here. These are all different clubs that you're involved with. Botafogo, Lyon, you may have the same, maybe part of your multi-club ownership structure, but when you say that they're all, and from the perspective of the fans, they're all independent.
42:39They all want to do well. And when you're saying this, oh, yeah, look, I'll have some losses here at Botafogo, there's some profits here at Lyon and vice versa, and I'll help Marinakis who need some liquidity, then he helps me. You're showing that you have no concept of what a football club is and what it means to the fans. And I tell you, without the fans, you have zero revenue. You have zero. It's not a business. It's not a business without the fans. For you to come out and say this, it just shows such ignorance, such foolishness. Why would you do this?
43:12Julien Laurens:And there's another story developing as well. Some players were transferred from Botafogo to Lyon but never played for Lyon like Igor Jesus or Jair. And now some people are asking for Lyon to pay some of the money, some of the transfer fees that apparently they were ready to pay but I forgot all of those players were never there, which again is another, I think, another text or kind of sort of manipulation. And he also said something else that was really stupid beyond that, which is, by the way, isn't obvious. I mean, there's no fair market value agreement, I guess, there, or maybe there is with the NCG, maybe they'll investigate, I don't know.
43:51Julien Laurens:Yeah. But when he talks about, oh, isn't it fantastic that, you know, you can watch games in the Premier League and you have former Botafogo players on both sides. I'm like, it's not fantastic. It's stupid. If you're my Botafogo fan, I don't care about this. Why would I care about it? Why would you care about it? Antonio Conte reaches deep into his bench and Napoli ends up needing penalties to get Pascal Liare after he finished 1-1 in regular time. We know he's going to do this. I got no problem him doing it. He's obsessive that way. But it does mean that Lorenzo Luca is part of the second 11 now.
44:26And he scored. How about that? went to penalties. The Cagliari keeper, Caprille, is, on his day, is exceptional. He's made a couple big blunders this year, but honestly, he makes saves that very few people not named Mike or Jan or Thibaut make. I'm not saying he's as good as those guys. No, no, no. Not yet, but he is something else. So, yeah, so they advance, which might annoy Conte, but, bro, deal with it. Your second team did the job. Oddly scenes in Nice after that defeat to Lorient, on Jules, you think Jim Ratcliffe will be overly concerned?
45:01Julien Laurens:It doesn't seem like it, Gab, because he's still to this day. I mean, this morning I checked again before coming into the show. He hasn't called his manager, head coach, Frank Hayes. On Sunday night, when the players came back and the staff came back from Lorient where they lost again, the six defeats in a row, they flew into Nice, then they took the coach to go from the airport to the training ground where the cars... Where they parked their cars, yeah. Where they parked their cars, and 400 Ultras were waiting for them and things got really really ugly as you mentioned violence insults spitting up players punching players kicking players jeremy boga among those who was hit yeah boga terren moffy uh are both on sick leave uh this week jonathan close has also gone to the police so three of them have pressed charges uh it was it was horrible to see what is maybe even more horrible is that the mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi, has put a message on social media saying like, nothing happened.
46:00Julien Laurens:Basically, I paraphrase, but that's what I meant. Nothing happened. The Nice fans are not bad people. Let's just move on, which is unbelievable. That's terrible. Frank Hage revealing yesterday in an interview in Liky newspaper that nobody from the club called him or his players until Tuesday, including Jean-Claude Blanc, who is the CEO of sports for Ineos. So his boss, who didn't even think he was bad enough to call the players or the manager. Well, maybe Jean-Claude Blanc didn't know because maybe it was a French story. Maybe all the news reports were in French and how could Jean-Claude Blanc?
46:34Yeah, true. I see.
46:35Julien Laurens:Just to finish on this, Hayes had this incredible sentence in his interview. He said some of the fans had pétanque bulls in their hands. And he said, what was he for? They were not going to play pétanque that night. So it was to threaten and throw at the bus and the players, at the players, at the players' cars and all of that. It's not the first time that there's issues like that in Nice where the ultras are very powerful and very involved, especially when things go badly. But it's things that should never happen, not just in football, but nobody should go to their workplace and be threatened by somebody else.
47:09Yeah, and my personal message for the mayor of Nice because your reaction is straight out of the playbook that we saw in Italy when we used to see players who were racially abused and then somebody from the city or the club would be like, oh, but the people of the city, this city, aren't racist. Nobody's saying that they are. Nobody's saying that the people of Nice are criminals. I go to Nice every summer. I don't see criminals on the street. I don't believe people from Nice. Nobody believes people from Nice or Nice fans are criminals.
47:39Julien Laurens:But the people who are there who are assaulting Klaus and Bogart, frank hairs with the stupid petanque balls and whatever those people are engaging in criminal behavior and you have to accept that it's not an attack on you don't get so stupidly defensive about it i know fifa have changed the release date for players heading to afcon uh this winter it was supposed to be december 8th and after pressure from the clubs it will be december 15th just seven days before the first game of the tournament yeah so fifa say oh but look this is exactly what we did for the World Cup in Qatar and now this is the new established practice if you hold your competition in winter or when it's a European winter.
48:22All I would say to this is I'm not surprised. FIFA as we, I mean, CAF, the confederation that runs Africa, is in a very weak position right now. They've effectively been taken over by FIFA for some time now and I think there's reasons for the takeover which maybe were valid ones but certainly the days when CAF did what they wanted or over. I don't think it's realistic for CAF to play the tournament in the summer. It really isn't for many reasons, starting with the weather and the rainy season and whatever else. This is when they have to play it. All I would say is if I'm CAF, I can say, you know what?
48:56I don't have the same level of respect as for the Euros. They sure as hell don't release players seven days before. So I think it is a bit of a slap in the face and I think it was insensitively done. and also doing it so close to the date. You knew this tournament was happening. The pressure from the clubs, yeah. Okay, but what? The clubs only found out now? This is where I think we can blame FIFA because I understand if you're a club, you're saying I pay Mo Salah and Zambongi and whatever. He's injured, but I pay these guys. I need more say, blah, blah, blah. I need them, right? But then you start before, and they probably did, and you petitioned FIFA before, and FIFA makes a change before because what about these national team coaches who have to prepare their stuff and they have a preparation of two weeks lined up, thinking it's going to be two weeks.
49:41Absolutely. And now, on what, December 3rd, I think is when it was announced, they come out and say, oh, no, by the way, they're not coming for another 12 days. You sit around Twitter your thumbs for an extra week. That's just stupid.
49:56Julien Laurens:And it's unfair for the countries who start, you know, the ones who play the second week, the first game, that's fine. But the one who will start, like Morocco, who play the opening game, is terrible for them. Completely unnecessary. Spain have won the Women's Nations League duels, but it's bad news for Aitana Bomatti. Yeah, it is bad news. She broke her leg at training. She'll be out for between four and five months. So we're in December. That tells you that she might be back if she's lucky for the end of the season. Without her, Spain still beat Germany comfortably. This was the second leg of this final.
50:30Julien Laurens:So it's not like the men. The women play home and away. 3-0, was it? Yeah, 3-0 after after drawing in Germany. They've won the two nations league. They beat France in the first one two years ago. This one now. They are, as we know, by far the best team in Europe, in the world, even if they didn't win the Euros, obviously, against England. But that still doesn't reflect how good they are. And even without Aitana, it's really bad news for her and for Barcelona as well. Four or five months, Aitana may be back for the Champions League final against Juventus. Exactly. Juventus or Roma or who else to you.
51:03Julien Laurens:That's it. That's it. That's all. The final report on events at Hillsborough, which led to 97 Liverpool supporters losing their life, has come out. Gabby seemed mad that it's been 36 years and only now is their closure. Yeah, I would say it's probably closure more than justice. There have been so many reports and reviews over the years and people might be wondering, why are people still talking about it? Well, the reason I'm talking about it is 97 people died and there was a massive police cover-up and there was collusion between the police politicians and portions of the media i i don't think that these facts are in doubt yeah and this isn't going to bring anybody back but you want to have a final word we already had it's been what like 12 years since the apology from the prime minister david cameron the conservative prime minister will apologize who basically said all the things that i just said um but you still i think deserve a level of justice, a level of explanation.
52:04In this case, this report here was by the Independent Office for Police Conduct, and what they found was absolutely appalling. Again, we've known most of these things, but just as a reminder,
52:20the stand of the Leppings Lane where this tragedy unfolded, the capacity should have been 3 ,089. 7 ,200 tickets were sold which is one of the many factors that contributed to the crutch but most of them going back to the policing that story that was confirmed about this guy, this cop, Bettison who alcohol tested the corpses including children because he wanted to find evidence that people were drunk and caused this absolutely appalling heartbreaking stuff and the other thing is every single policeman who was involved in this they all retired so none of them faced prosecutions which again is another is another slap in the face I think Barry says your man are reportedly looking for an affiliate club just like Liverpool.
53:20Jules you know my thoughts on multi-club ownership and now it feels like it can't be stopped
53:25Julien Laurens:Well, I don't know if it can be stopped or not, but they've already pretty much added their own big chunk of Braga. For example, in Portugal, they looked for a long time to buy Leeds United at the time where it was for sale, also in Spain and Malaga. So they've been looking. They believe it would be great for the young players, for example, that they will invest more and more in financially and in terms of playing. so again it depends how you use your multi-club ownership so let's see where they let's see where they go they also have a stadium to think about so there's a lot of things right now on the you know on the table for them so i'm not sure this would be done anytime soon and an nba franchise too maybe yeah of course yeah in paris the zone has pulled out of its deal to broadcast the belgian pro league gab is deja vu with what we went through in france for example it is the bizarre thing here is that that deal in Belgium was relatively new and it went through 2030 and look we're not kind of like a media podcast so I'm not going to get into DAZN's business model but I think everybody knows that the public investment fund of Saudi Arabia invested a lot of money in DAZN ahead of the Club World Cup money which then just went through the other end to to FIFA.
54:43Yeah. Funnily enough. The New York Times reporting that the public investment fund now being a lot more careful what they spend their money on, that they've had this internal review. You hear about some big projects in Saudi being scaled back or tried being tried to make more rational. I think the government of Saudi Arabia says we're going to be more careful how we spend our money. the knock-on effect for this, and we touched upon this before, is if you're the Belgian Pro League, how do you react? You know, they're going to take them to court. Unlike in France, where in France they reached a deal because I think there wasn't much left on the contract, right, time-wise.
55:24And you might also say because it's Nasser. You know, but this is a big blow, and I think the whole business model now in a lot of, let's say, mid-sized European leagues is being called into question. Chelsea-bound Strasbourg's starlet, Emmanuel Emega, has been suspended by the club. Jules, please tell me it's not because you thought Strasbourg was in Germany.
55:50Julien Laurens:This is a great story, I think. So at least the game, so we missed the game at the weekend. We're not sure if he's going to come back after that for the Conference League game against Aberdeen. And he's the club captain, by the way, too, and the best player as well. There's a lot of things that he says. He said recently that really annoyed people at the club and that led to this ban on top of, you know, attitude at training as well and things like that. One of them was right. He said that when he signed for Strasbourg, he didn't know where the city was. He thought he was in Germany. Later found out that he was in France.
56:24Julien Laurens:If you are from that region, on the French side, certainly I don't know about the German side, on the French side, this feels like insulting. And I think it is, to be fair. For everything that happened between France and Germany, over that region, obviously, in history. That was not very smart from him. He also said that when we asked him about, you know, Strasbourg lost to Monaco, drew with PSG, lost against Marseille, lost against Lyon, all those big games. He said, well, I wasn't there. I wasn't there against Monaco. I wasn't there against PSG. I wasn't there against Marseille. To explain why, basically, the team without him is rubbish and why the rest of his team and his teammates are rubbish.
57:02Julien Laurens:the only the other thing it took them a bit of time to suspend him which either they were waiting for the moment i.e. we play away at Toulouse we should win without him anyway maybe not after Toulouse's recent magic 2-2 draw yeah with Marseille but still I think he deserved that ban and I think if he comes to Chelsea with this kind of attitude he could have a lot of trouble well this is also the guy of course he got absolutely pilloried by the fans when sort of um and and rossini had to go the manager had to go and defend yeah that's not really his fault who on when chelsea decided to announce him as the new signing it was in september for june for july which is a bit weird he has an agent he can control it's not entirely on the club but well i'm still shocked by the strasbourg thing because i'm still on the plan he's he's not 18 years old right he's 22 he's 22 years old he's obviously came up by i think he's from Rotterdam or The Hague or someplace like that.
57:59But you know what? He's lived in Belgium. He lived in Austria. Strasbourg may not be famous for some things, but it is where the European Parliament is. The way that Strasbourg is spelt is different from the German spelling. I don't expect you to be completely ignorant, but you're showing your stupidity. Even if it's true that you thought it was in Germany and you were going to the Bundesliga to Strasbourg who you've never heard of in the Bundesliga. why would you come out and say something that, A, makes you look stupid? I agree. Leave aside what you said before about the Alsace and history, and I'm sure he's never heard of Arsene Wenger, for example.
58:38It's just, you're right. He needs a serious attitude adjustment if he's going to come to Chelsea.
58:43Julien Laurens:The World Cup Drew is finally here. Gabby will be on Friday. We'll be tuning in all around the world, and it's going to be a star-studded event with legends from other sports too. What about we rank them? We should. Obviously, the musical legends that are there, village people, I can't imagine why they were invited. In fact, I can. But yes, so we're going to have Wayne Gretzky, Shaquille O 'Neal, Tom Brady, Aaron Judge. They're going to be the draw assistants. Yes. Rio Fadon is the conductor of the draw. Yeah, but he's a football guy, so I'm just going to focus on that. Eli Manning, he's going to be the red carpet guy.
59:22who, okay, first of all, I say this as an Eagles fan, Eli does not belong with the other four. I don't care if they do Super Bowl. So let's leave him out of the running. If I had to rank them in terms of greatness, I'll give you two rankings and we'll do the greatness ranking and the likability ranking.
59:37Julien Laurens:Don't go with whether you like the guy or not, or the team that you used to play for. I see you coming with Tom Brady. Go on. Okay, number one has to be Wayne Gretzky. He is the great one. There is no argument there. Number two, grudgingly, I do have to go with Tom Brady over Shaq. Okay, so you are actually objective. I try to be. I have to be. Likeability, Tom Brady would be bottom for obvious reasons. He might even be below Eli. But yes, great. Look, Aaron Judge is a big man who scores a lot of home runs. Shaq is an even bigger man, and he's Shaq. And he's one more than Aaron Judge. Yeah, Aaron Judge still has some time.
1:00:18Yeah, sure. but in the world series. We'll go Shaq. Are you on board with that? Gretzky, Brady, Shaq, Judge? Yeah, and that's pretty spectacular, to be fair. Jules, this brings us to an end, but show will be back on Monday without me. Neda Manua is filling in as I celebrate Sinterklaas. No, I'm just getting a day off. Until then, love the game, love your neighbor, love yourself.
1:00:51Turn it up. Storm has zero sugar and 200 milligrams of caffeine. So you can turn that workout up a notch. Good energy in, good energy out. Energy for life.
From the publisher
Gab Marcotti and Julien Laurens react to Barcelona’s 3-1 win over Atletico Madrid in LaLiga. Plus, the pair also discuss the other midweek matches, as well as the latest football news in quick hits.
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