Gab & Juls Show: Are Man City FA Cup Favourites?

21:50Julien Laurens:I agree. The alternative you've seen, Kapia, is right back. He hasn't done that very often. It's suboptimal. But effectively, you're talking three center backs, Pascal Affiori or Luis Scali, right? Yeah. Which is fine. You can make that tweak. Yeah, definitely. The Times report that Arsenal are charging more than£130 ,000 for a luxury box at the home game against Burnley on Monday night when they can't win the title. But at the time, they advertised that the idea was they could potentially win. Yeah, but we get close to it for the first title in 22 years. Gab, does this sound a bit greedy to you?

22:22No, not at all. And I broke this down. And this really bugs me. I think we have a problem with ticket prices and numbers, right? Oh, it's a big number. 100 ,000, a million. Oh, it's all the same because it's a big number. I don't understand it. So I looked at this. I looked at what you get for this. Now, I would not pay this, but it's 15 seats, right? So you can bring 15 of your friends, which instantly knocks this down to what? Like eight grand a person, right? Then you get a replica home shirt. Then you get to meet with an Arsenal legend. I don't know if it's one of the good ones, or you get Martin Sheehan around, but whatever.

22:54You get a three-course meal. Again, three-course meal at that level. London, it's going to be 150 pounds, something like that. Then you get sliders at halftime. Then you get a cheese course at the end. I mean, there's a value on this. I much prefer a football club say, Let me put a package like this together for people who can't afford it, and let me use this to cross-subsidize the average fan in the average seat. So Burnley returned more than 1 ,000 tickets, reportedly, for this game, understandably. Arsenal could have put those on sale for 1 ,000 pounds if they were like FIFA. Look, dynamic pricing.

23:32No, they're on general sale for 45 pounds, which I think is in line with the cheaper Arsenal seats, right? Yeah, got to go with C, yeah. So I think the model is fine. I mean, screw it. If you find people who will pay you even more than$130 ,000 for this 15-person box, go for it. Those aren't the fans that I worry about. Do you understand what I'm saying? You're not taking places away from that. Sorry, I had to go on a rant because this kind of stupid-ass populism, just so misguided. These are not the problems of thinking football. We have champions in France. What a shock. It's Paris Saint-Germain.

24:06And then they beat Lange 2-0 on the road to seal the deal. However, this game itself, not straightforward at all.

24:14Julien Laurens:No, they were lucky to win this. I mean, to be fair, a loss win or even a draw would have been fairer. Loss at 25 shots, 10 on target. Savonov saved all of them. He was outstanding. L 'Equipe gave him 9 out of 10 in their ratings. And trust me, getting 9 in the L 'Equipe ratings is difficult. Especially when you have a man bun. Well, I don't mind so much the man bun. It was incredible. It's been incredible the last few weeks, not just in this game. Anyway, Launce, a wonderful team. I've said it all along. For me, even if they don't win the title, they can still win the French Cup in the final against Nice.

24:47Julien Laurens:But they have been the best team in the league. And they were just a bit unlucky towards the end in the final sprint. Maybe a lack of experience from the players, from Pierre Sages, the coach. They just missed a bit, a little bit there and got a bit tired despite not playing in Europe. But they've been incredible and they were incredible in this game. really make themselves, their fans, our friend Josef Fugolian, the owner, really, really proud because they were outstanding and they were really unlucky to lose. But well done to PSG, 5th title in a row, 14th in history. And they won that with the depth in their squad more than their first team.

25:22Julien Laurens:Inter do the double gap, beating Lazio 2-0 at the Stadio Olimpico. Christian Kivu keeps the legacy going. Yeah, with a little bit of help from Nuno Tavares. Yeah, not good. But we had a goal from, they gave the goal to Turam, which I thought was weird to open it because it came off of Maricic. But I guess, you know, it's usual. Like, well, what defender wants to claim an own goal? Lautaro scored. You know, I see Lautaro scoring in the finals. I think, look, Inter are a much better team than Lazio. Lazio have got serious problems. Nice to see their fans show up. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I feel for Lazio, they've got serious issues.

25:58Inter can only beat what's in front of them. what I will say is Inter are far ahead of everybody else in Serie A this season and other clubs like Milan, like Juventus, like Roma can complain oh but restrictions, money, blah blah blah guys Inter are in the same boat you know Inter I have to operate at close to break even Inter have a comparable wage bill to yours so they're simply in a situation where not everybody is of the big clubs have a lot of money to chuck around. Inten are kind of competing. They're better at competing with a straight jacket. And as I said, Kivu taking over for Inzaghi.

26:39It's only the third double.

26:40Julien Laurens:I thought they would have more, but it's 06-10 and then this one. And I'm like, okay. One of them is a treble, which is the one that matters even more. Yeah, sure, but still, you know. Also, nice of you to mention 06. Juventus would suggest that that one never happened. Jules, it's time to go there. Real Madrid president Florentino Perez gave his first press conference in 11 years. I think it's fair to say it was worth the wait. Incredible. I've never seen anything like this really from somebody of this stature and of a club of this caliber. Florentino Perez, when we saw the statement from the club that he was going to address the media, I thought, OK, this is good because it's a tough season.

27:20Julien Laurens:It's a crisis season. hopefully it will bring clarity on the future next season you know have a strong message to the fans maybe even to the squad maybe he would talk about the Chouameni Valverde incident I was really hopeful I promise you I didn't see this disaster class coming at all and yet he made it all about himself to start with and clearly wanted to settle some scores with I'm not really sure exactly who but saying like oh everybody's attacking me they want my place so I'm not going to resign but instead I'm going to call new elections the elections were supposed to be in three years time so he moved them forward when we know and it's the next question Gabby how hard it is to even be a candidate he's actually leaving but then actually he's going to be re-elected I don't know if he wanted to flex but it was nothing but flexing because I thought he looked pathetic when he talked about the mall in the dressing room more than actually what happened between Chouameni and Valverde instead of condemning a fight that no club should have, especially not the bigger club in the world.

28:24Julien Laurens:He goes, well, every year, every year there's a fight. Well, there's nothing different. What bothers me is the league when him himself and his people league stuff all the time. This is what they do. You know, they use the press a lot in Madrid. And I think the worst probably for me, more than the Negreira case and Barcelona, the worst for me was when he had to go at his own fans for booing the team because he should know by now, after 26 years in charge in two spells, that fans are not happy with the performances or the results, which is the case this season because it's been poor. Football has been poor.

28:55Julien Laurens:Results have been poor. The fans, if they're not happy, they are allowed to show their discontent and their frustration. And instead, he pointed the finger at them himself saying, listen, I understand your frustration. We apologize. It's not good enough from a club like us, but next season we do better. No, instead it was none of that. The massive inconsistencies at the same time he's saying these fans, they're the Southfields. They're the owners of the club. well of course they're allowed to boo and you know what there's a strong history of Real Madrid fans booing and they're playing a lot of the team Real Madrid aren't like any other club in the world right and you know remember him telling me like oh we could be four and a lot but the Benabellos they don't like the way they're playing they'll boo us it's part of what makes Real Madrid special and he's going out there in the Forbes list and we're number one in this and the biggest turnover there so what so what Real Madrid are the biggest brand in football they may be the biggest brand in team sports.

29:44The standards are that high. You're not like another club. And to go there and to talk about everything he's won. No, we're talking about the here and now, right? Go and address that. Instead, he's picking on the ABC newspaper, which his dad used to get. He's all sarcastic about the fact that a woman journalist wrote something he didn't like. Some sexism. People plotting against him. Well, some sexism also. The Mexican guy. None of this. none of this is kosher and I think this makes you you look at this and it looks like somebody has a meltdown and you I hate to say he got so angry because people he was angry because people they said that people close to him say Florentino's tired right well I'm sorry if you're not tired what excuse do you have for such a disjointed thing I watched the whole thing he kept going back and repeating himself over and over again yeah yeah yeah I he's in his late 70s he needs help he needs people around him and trust him and say, this is not what we want.

30:42He should be thinking about his succession. He should have been thinking about his succession 10 years ago. That's the reality of it. If you love the club, that's what you do.

30:51Julien Laurens:And he turns 80 next year, Gab, and there are no term limits at Real Madrid in terms of presidency. And remind us why it's so hard for anyone to challenge him. Yeah, so they changed the rules a few years back where if you want to run for president, you must have been a club member for 20 years. And you need to personally provide an escrow. guarantees for 15 % of the club's revenue. The club's revenue has grown enormously now. So it's like 150 million odd that you need to provide, which not a lot of people can do, even though there's many rich people among Real Madrid's fan base. Now, these rules were put in because what you don't want is to have elections and you have some rando get elected and then he uses the club to get rich, which accusation has been leveled at previous Real Madrid presidents.

31:38Florentino's already a billionaire. So I think most people think, well, there's no chance that Florentino's going to, you know, Florentino's not there for his own personal enrichment. He doesn't need that. No, no. Which is true. Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. But there's a limit because you make a Venn diagram of people who are eligible to run for the Real Madrid presidency. And it's only Florentino who meets the requirements. I mean, that's kind of the requirement. I mean, this other dude, this Mexican guy, we'll see. We can, yeah. In a couple of years, maybe Cristiano. I don't know if he got his membership, but, you know.

32:12Julien Laurens:He would have been a member for 20 years, Cristiano. It's just stuff to think about. 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 in protecting both your people and your facilities.

32:43Call 1-800-GRAINGER, click grainger.com, or just stop by. You thought this was your run club era. Turns out, it was more of a thinking about run club era. The good news? Someone's marathon training is about to start. Sell your workout gear on Depop. Just snap a few photos, and we'll take care of the rest. They get their race day fit, and you get a payout for trying. Someone on Depop wants what you've got. Start selling now. Depop, where taste recognizes taste. Let's go to the championship playoffs. Now, this has happened over the weekend, but a late Shea Charles goal gave Southampton a 2-1 win on aggregate over Middlesbrough, which should mean that they face Hull City in the playoff final for promotion to the Premier League at Wembley.

33:31I say should because it's all in doubt Southampton have now been officially charged with spying on a Middlesbrough training session yeah

33:41Julien Laurens:we talked about it with Don on Monday all we wait now is to see what the punishment is going to be the sanction what the EFL are going to do to Southampton because it's clearly clear that they spied on their training there's enough evidence now the club Southampton are saying like we knew nothing about it this assistant guy he's an he's an intern performance analyst his name is William salt according to the Daily Mail yeah but he's on photos a lot with the staff everywhere you know on the club's website and everywhere so he might be an intern but he's still very close to the staff but the staff and tonight the manager saying we knew nothing about this which is obviously what they were gonna say so now what are they gonna get for for it for spying and cheating is it that's the next question yeah some Some would think that a fine like Leeds and Bielsa had when they spied on Derby County for example a few years ago, is it be some point deduction?

34:34Julien Laurens:Is it be like full expelled? We will see. But for now they are supposed to play at Wembley against South City in 10 days time in the final. And Gab, if they are found guilty, Middlesbrough want them expelled from the playoffs. So take their place in the final basically. By the way, Middlesbrough are still training instead of sending their place on holidays. they're going to train until the decision is made um others like i said would like to set up point deduction for next season or heavy fine is more likely where do you stand and what do you think this is 100 they should be thrown out do you think but look it's not too severe william salt even just an intern he's not a southampton fan right he is somebody i don't know well i'm sorry i you go to southampton you say if this guy is identified as an intern he must have a badge to access the facility, right?

35:25He's not some weirdo out there who operates on his own, right? Now, it may have been his own personal decision to go and do this. I might go and believe somebody named Tonda that this is what happened. But you're employing him. You're responsible for it. You are responsible for doing this. You would have gained the advantage. Would they have reported him if he'd come back and said, Hey, look, Tonda, look at all this information I have on Middlesbrough's set pieces. oh, how did you get this, William Salt? Like, oh, well, you know, better not. Come on. What are we talking about here?

35:58Julien Laurens:And also there's clubs who think they've done it before to them earlier in the season. I 100 % they should be thrown out. Appoints deduction next season. What about the parties that have been hurt? And said, there's other clubs before, maybe don't have the evidence. Minersberg do have the evidence. I think this is open and shut. And I'll tell you what. There's not much time, though. There's not much time. And in this country, they're always like, oh no, we can't move the games, we can't the playoffs, oh Wembley's booked I don't care put sport first for once, if you can't come to a definitive decision by May 23rd you say, hey Hull City, you go train for another week and we'll play this game again, and you know what, if Wembley's busy, we'll go play somewhere else we'll play at the Emirates or at the Spurs Stadium or somewhere else sport has to come first here not just the process, let's wrap everything up by by june 1st it's just stupid you know i was more uh disappointed i mean this is this is poor really and disappointing but there's a there's a moment in the game in the second leg where i don't know if you know luke ailing you know yeah he's got a speech impediment yeah from former leeds united right exactly yeah and clearly during the game harbour bellis the south and one defender mocked him for that spinch impediment uh to the point that ailing told the referee who used the same protocol in a way as racist abuse.

37:18Julien Laurens:Went to see the two managers to explain what just happened on the pitch. The play had been stopped for quite a while actually for this incident and rightly so. And as the referee is telling the two managers, Helberg and Ecker, about it, Ecker's reaction is you could read on his lips, say do me a favor like if it was nothing. His own player, his own captain, I think his captain actually as well, mocking a player and clearly, you know, abusing a player for or the way he talks during the game, which is unacceptable. You know, it's exactly like what we say about every other incident that we see on the pitch.

37:51Julien Laurens:And that's how, instead of saying like, I'm sorry, I'll have a word with my captain. This should not happen. He goes like, do me a favor, do me a favor, plus the F word, etc., etc. And I thought that was outrageous of a reaction from a manager like this. I'm 100 % with you. I was unaware of this fact. I don't follow the championship. I thought it was really poor, really, really poor. And I would have thought that Tonda Ecker, of all people, given all the abuse he got as a little boy for having such a freaking stupid girl's name. What, you Tonda? But that's not a point, even if he didn't get abused.

38:26Julien Laurens:I know. I know what you mean. Of course. And for Howard Bellis as well, he's pretty cool. Hey, you want to get an edge over someone, whatever. You run the risk. You run the risk. And also, if you've been told this is treated as discriminatory abuse, if this is the same thing, if you've been calling him a gypsy, or if he were Jewish and doing anti-Semitic stuff, or if he were black and was racist stuff, or if it was homophobic abuse, all those things that fall in that bucket. And like you said, they have a thing. Yeah. Preseason, the players are told. Of course, there's a protocol. Then, yeah, there's no question about it.

39:01Ibrahim Diabate scores the only goal as Barcelona fall away to Alaves 1-0. Well, Jules, this means they won't reach the 100-point mark this season. I don't think they care at all. I do think Alaves cares because this will probably keep them up.

39:17Julien Laurens:Yeah, and I don't think in a very tight race against relegation, if you look at it between, I think, 11th and 20th or 19th, I think there's like three or four points, something like that. So it's really tight down there. Alaves would have been super happy to see the lineup first because it was clearly Barca B team after celebrating the title for the last few days. And then that Barca B team didn't really put up much of a fight in this game, to be honest. And for Alaves, what a great win. It took them from in the bottom three to just obviously outside the bottom three, which is massive, massive for them.

39:52Julien Laurens:For Barcelona, I think the 100 points would have been nice. But you're right, they don't care. The Times report that Omar Barada and Jason Wilcox have recommended that Michael Carrick be given the Manchester United job on a permanent basis. Are you okay with this, Gab? Is this part of the process or no? Recommended to, what, Ratcliffe and the Glazers? You think so, yeah. Okay, so if this is part of your process, if you've gone and interviewed candidates and interviewed Carrick, fine, because you had a process. Yeah. I don't know that they had a process. I don't know who they interviewed, what they managed to secretly interview.

40:26I mean, people like Iraola, people like Glasner, they still have day jobs. I don't know that they managed to secretly go and talk to them. I don't know who they talked to. But hey, if you guys did, that's fine. But if you're just bowing to pressure, you're like, oh, Carrick got the job done, because I'll tell you what, not a knock on Carrick, but next season is going to be completely different. They're going to be in Europe. They're going to have to add probably, you know, a couple midfielders. They're going to add a bunch of players. It's going to be a very different context. It's going to be untested.

40:55It doesn't mean Carrick can't do it. but he has to convince you through the interview process and you have to convince yourself after talking to other people as well. That's how you had the Solskjaer problem to begin with. So I'd be very disappointed if that was the case. The only living sort of lot in captivity comes off the bench to score as Atletico Madrid winner Osasuna 2-1. Jules, he's up to 20 goals in all competitions once more. This kid's pretty amazing.

41:22Julien Laurens:Yeah, he's pretty good and he was on the bench again. I'm not sure what the problem is because Simone played look man and griezmann in the front two oh come on that's all creativity style it's not so much like it's creativity or no it's just like if you're solo you're thinking like i got a minute even look man plays ahead of me you know alvarez i can get like you know griezmann is griezmann and he's coming to the end so he's going to play every game now between now and the end of the season but i thought that was a bit harsh on him he came on did well although the goal is a tap in uh like header and easy header on the Llorente deflected cross um this was i thought not a great performance it's tough to go to as soon as i know and to be fair they had the better chances and and probably a draw would have been fairer but atletico then have nothing to play for apart from maybe finishing third and not fourth which financially gives you a couple more million uh euros in in you know tv revenue prizes so that's all really but i wanted that uh i did that again for for espnfc and i I wanted Griezmann to shine.

42:23Julien Laurens:He got the penalty for the first goal and then gave the ball to Lukman, which I thought was very generous for him and had a bit of moment of brilliance through and through. So I was happy. I was trying to be like you. I'm surprised at this stage. Why not let the guy play and get his goals, right? Especially if you're going to arrest Alvarez. I wonder, to me, obviously there's a lot of rumors linking Alvarez with a move away. He's got a lot of people like him, including, funny enough, Paris Saint-Germain. Yeah, we tried to sign him two years ago. He chose Atleti instead of them. I wonder if part of the reading here is...

42:58Because I don't think you're going to keep both of them. I think at this stage. You need to monetize. It would make sense. Let's just play Sorlott all the time. Let him pump up his stats. And then we shift to Sorlott because Alvarez is a better player. Unless they figure it's going to be difficult to keep Alvarez. Yeah, he wants to leave us. And then you really monetize Alvarez. Yeah, yeah, definitely.

43:19Julien Laurens:I think that's the idea for the summer for sure. If he joins Paris Saint-Germain, he's not going to be happy in the Gonzalo Ramos role. He's going to want minutes. How's that going to work? Because you really have four going into three, and then it goes five into three? Yeah, although I think Barcola could maybe be leaving. He was subbed off after the halftime survey last night in Laos because he was not good at all. and I wonder if there's something there maybe. And in that case, you know, you need, because I think Gonzalo Ramos is going to leave in the summer anyway. So you might lose two of your five attackers, really, if you don't count the kids.

44:00Julien Laurens:So I think you can have him. You can also move maybe Desiré a bit deeper, which he's done really, really well in this game against Lens. But that's mean to Warren Zaire Emery at some point going forward. You need players, you need competition, you need depth in your squad, a lot of that. So I think Barcelona is probably where Julio Nelvarez right now wants to go and probably where, if they can afford him, the fit is the best. But I can see why he's also tempted by Luis Enrique and PSG. Napoli fall at home to Bologna 3-2 thanks to a late Jonathan Rowe. Quite a spectacular goal as well, if you haven't seen him.

44:37Julien Laurens:That's his kick. Gab, they could have wrapped up their Champions League plays for next season. Yeah, and they kind of screwed this up. They came from behind And maybe a point's enough They'll be fine, there's two games to go They're on 70, Juventus on 68 Milano Roma on 67 Obviously trending in the wrong direction After that four-show against Atalanta And Little Como On 65 And they're going to have three spots Presumably he's going to come down to Milano Roma But It is kind of disappointing I expected better from that But they're a good team They're a really nice team to watch. I think Conte, like once the motivation goes, because he knows he's there, you know, the team goes flat very quickly.

45:20Wild stuff in Scotland, Jules. Hearts thought they had won the title until a late Kelechi and Nacho penalty via VAR in Celtic's game against Falkirk. Means it will all come down to the final day of the season. When Celtic play who?

45:37Julien Laurens:Yeah, Hearts. So they wouldn't have won the title. There would be three points clear with the game to go and the plus five goal difference in their favor. Okay, so they would have had to lose 6-0 against Celtic. No, 3. No, 3 because they would swing, obviously, yeah. So a 3-0 defeat could have, I guess, happen and be possible. However, they would have made a massive step towards the title and instead, I'm going to say it's a disgusting VAR call and referee call on that penalty for Celtic. I don't think it's ever a penalty. I think if you mother well, you feel really harshly done. If you're hard, you feel really, really harshly done.

46:11Julien Laurens:Derek McInnes, their manager, was, as you would expect, outraged at the end when he was asked about that penalty. For me, it's never in a million years a penalty. But we have the final of the league that everybody wanted and kind of was hoping for. Not if you're Hearts and Celtic, who they would have hoped to wrap up before that. But this is it. It's not the first time that Hearts could have lost or lose a title in the last game of the season, I think 1965 and 1986, if I remember well. That's when they were in this position and lost, I think, both Rangers, actually. It's been a long time since in the Scottish League.

46:54Julien Laurens:We've had a game like this where the winner takes it all, basically. Celtic Park is going to be, obviously, buzzing and incredible. for such a big stadium. You know how much the away fans allocation is? No. 600. Wow. For such a big stadium. That's like 1 % of the stadium. It's taking the make, really, it's bad. So those 600 hearts fans will travel to Glasgow to be there for that game, potentially watching history. They haven't won the title since 1960. will be you know really hopeful and to be fair let's be honest here we like Martin O 'Neill as a what he's done you don't like as a person but what he's done in this club yeah you know coming leaving coming back again uh the hearts have been the best team by far and I think for what they are building there with Tony Bloom and the investment that he had in the summer the low budget that they have, the players that they find, you know, the data that they use, I think they fully deserve to be champions.

47:57Yeah. And it's, I have to say this and this applies to Tony Bloom at Brighton and it applies in a different way, perhaps to his great rival, Matthew Benham at Brentford. These guys lose people every year, right? You look at like half of the people who made Brighton great are at Chelsea. Yeah. Yeah. Ashworth leaves and people are like, Oh, this guy's a secret. They all leave, and then they replace them with other people. Not just players, but front office staff as well. Yeah, yeah. At Brentford, I was talking to somebody there, and Thomas Frank leaves to go to Spurs, and then every week after that, he takes one other guy, one other guy, one other guy.

48:34They all freaking laughed. I know. And then they get Andrews, who, I don't want to disrespect the guy, but it's not like you're getting somebody who would consider some sort of genius up in college who was raving about. Yeah, yeah, yeah. they put new people around them, and they win again. That's club culture. Like, honestly, if you're another club and you say, I want to copy Brighton's success, the guy you need to recruit from Brighton is Tony freaking Bloom.

49:00Julien Laurens:Yeah, I know. Yeah, go and buy him. There are people who are richer than he is. Go and get Tony Bloom to work for you, and then you can rebuild a little Brighton. Yeah. Back to Serie A, as we record this on Thursday morning, we're still not sure when the Champions League deciding games, including the Rome derby are going to be played, Gav. This is crazy. It's completely crazy. Every year we go something like that. This is beyond stupid. So this is a thing. So in the last two rounds of Serie A games where they have something at stake and you have an advantage based on the result elsewhere blah blah blah which can be obviously relegation for the title or whatever or the Champions League spots they all have to be played at the same time.

49:40So nobody gets an advantage. So this means that this weekend it's Roma Lazio Juventus Fiorentina, Genoa Milan, Pisa Napoli and Como Parma all have to be played at the same time It's kind of a hokey rule I think but I understand the logic behind it The problem is is that This weekend is also the final of the Italian Open tennis as you know like these days we're Much better at tennis than we are at football So it's a big deal and the Italian Open in Rome is played at the Foro Italico Which is part of the same complex as the Olympic Stadium so the final will probably be late afternoon and so they said all right we'll then we'll we'll play Roma Lazio at 12 o 'clock on or 12 30 on Sunday before that which incidentally you know you know 70 ,000 fans milling about with these genteel tennis fans on their way in later I don't know yeah but guess what you knew when the schedule came out that these two events were on the same day in the same place you knew this you knew this months ago yeah right and then you're making all these other these other what four games they're all being they all have to adjust based on you so um they filed a complaint they filed a complaint with they went to court to try to get an emergency injunction to move the game to monday to move then you'd be moving all these games to monday the league says no wait a minute because on monday um it's a work day right we make some of our money around the world and stuff.

51:08People are at work. It was funny. Marito Sarri, in his slight insanity, he's like, oh, you know what? If this game's on Sunday, if I got permission from the president, I just wouldn't show up. It's ridiculous that we have to play on Sunday at 12.30 in May. I just wouldn't show up. I don't care. I'll forfeit the game, give the points to Roma. What do I care? So it's an absolute mess And again, it does not make the league look good Sevilla will stay up after winning 3-2 at Villarreal But Jules, the really good news Is that they may soon have a new ownership group Led by Sergio Ramos Is this good news?

51:52Julien Laurens:Yeah, I think it's good news I mean, the win is good news to start with Because it's a late winner by Akar Adams And to win at Villarreal Who have nothing to play for And will, you know on the 3rd or 4th place but still they've qualified for the Champions League huge for Sevilla those back-to-back wins massive but you're right the big news is Sergio Ramos potentially coming back with a consortium behind him too 444 million euros is the cost to buy the club where he all started for him where he was obviously at the academy but where he's from as well and when we know what a mess he's been at the top of the club they'll need all of that all that click I think it's good news let's hope is good news certainly for the club because they are massive club that's a really big valuation um i think what's going to determine whether it's good or bad is the other people in the consortium because we've seen consortiums that are kind of you know fronted by by certain people um yeah like other like like his old pal jerry pk for example who's in trouble for other reasons right now um but in the end the people who are putting in the money they have no trouble Sergio Ramos is the figurehead and he's putting a couple million and somebody else putting a hundred million if it's a tough decision ahead they'll be like hey Sergio get to one side right so it doesn't always work great but it's certainly better than the chaos they had before Manuel Neuer may be 40 years old but he's coming back next season Gab he's signing one year extension with Bayern yeah he's had some big moments he's also had some big mistakes but it's kind of like the story of Neuer's career.

53:29He's had many more big moments than big mistakes obviously. In negotiating this I hope they sat down with him and they said look, we believe in Jonas Urbic and it's not just him. I think they still have Peretz under contract as well. I hope they said to him, Manuel, if you're here, your main job is to help Urbic grow. We'll play whoever's in form at the time. You cannot sulk if you sit on the bench and you have to accept the fact that your minutes are going to go down. Because a year of the Manuel Neuer we saw this year, playing every game isn't worth it.

54:06Julien Laurens:Yeah. Isn't worth it if then you have to start from scratch and you've destroyed, and you have another Neubel situation like we had a few years ago, right? So, but otherwise, he's a leader if he accepts those terms. I think he can be a tremendous asset to the club. Salzburg's big center back, Joan Gadu, is on the move. Dules, he's joining Borussia Dortmund. Yeah. And because he's Paris Born and Bred, you need to fill us in. Yeah, I mean, huge talent from a very young age, massive in terms of size and everything. Didn't really believe that there was a pathway for him in Paris, which is a bit of a shame because he's obviously, you know, Paris born and bred, as you said, Gavin, from the academy.

54:43Julien Laurens:So he left in 2024 and when he said that, he doesn't see the pathway. In 2024, Marquinhos was old, Pacho had just arrived. but he was still very young. I don't think he was ready for first-team football, although he had a couple of chances and certainly training with the first team is difficult. But I'm just talking, if you talk about pathway, right? Obviously, you go to Salzburg, you fall off the map for two years, right? Playing in the Austrian League. I'm just surprised that it's not like Prysand Germain at that moment had like four 22-year-old centre-backs ahead of him, right? In the pecking order.

55:21You had an old guy and you had a guy who looked really good, but it just arrived, right? and then you had Beraldo who was slow and Zabardi wasn't there yet right so I just look at it I just I don't know I wonder if maybe maybe the club could have done more to say like I think they tried everything

55:40Julien Laurens:he didn't want to stay so you know they had to let him go I think there's a percentage maybe on this 20 million euro out of bonus sale to Dortmund I'm not sure if he's ready yet for that step up even from Salzburg and Austria to the Bundesliga we'll see but he's still very young but he's got a huge potential. They're packing in the young centre-backs. With that, my Italian boys, my name, Gianni as well. Karlyn Kruger will become the first woman sporting director in a big five league, main big five league obviously, when she takes over the Hamburg job on July the 4th, Gab. July the 1st, sorry. Yeah, I don't know if the big five applies to women to be perfectly honest.

56:16No, but you know how to do women's leagues. I understand. I think women, I think they're more of like a big three, maybe? Big three plus Barcelona Yeah maybe Yeah So there was somebody else And I'm blanking on her name At Watford actually A couple years ago But obviously Watford were in the championship at the time So not quite the same thing It's interesting because She comes out She started out at Christian Nalinga's assistant A long time, way back in 2009 So she's been at Bayern for 16 years and her role there has grown in strategy. And I think she's kind of, she's been exposed to every aspect from the recruitment side to the contract side to the negotiation side.

57:04Obviously, Hamburg is very different to Bayern. Most clubs are very different to Bayern. But she's certainly at this stage, she should have the contact, she should have the skill set. And, you know, there's no reason that she can't do this job. She certainly has the experience. Drama in the Saudi Pro League, Jules. Cristiano Ronaldo and Al Nasser they were 1-0 up they thought they had won the league against their big rival Al Hilal and then we had a comedy moment from their goalkeeper Bento

57:32Julien Laurens:yeah last minute of the game him and the defender go for the same ball they fumbled there and Al Hilal scored to make it 1-1 in like the 10th minute of the easy time yeah 99th minute 99th I think it was or something like that which is incredible which means that now there's a 5 point gap still between Al Nasser and Al Hilal Al Hilal have a game in hand to play at home against Neom, I think on Tuesday or Wednesday night, if they win that, they obviously come back two points behind and then it's all down to the last game of the season. So it's still very much in Al Nasser and Cristiano's hands. If they win at home against Damage, who are playing not to go down, by the way, they're just above the relegation zone.

58:07Julien Laurens:If they win that or if they match the score of Al Hilal against Al Faya away, then they would be champions for the first time since Cristiano arrived and for the first time in a very long time as well, for such a big club in Saudi Arabia. So huge moment, of course, but still very much in that one. This is a missed opportunity for Al-Halal. They should have won this game. Yeah, but they would still win the title, I think. Brazil boss Carlo Ancelotti has issued his 55-man squad or pre-selection, pre-squad if you want, for the World Cup. Gab Thiago Silva and Neymar are included. Noah Esteval, for example, who is injured, but is that a surprise to see Neymar and Thiago Silva there?

58:46Well, Thiago Silva showed, well, going to Porto, he didn't play that much, but when he did play, but he was fit, and when he did play, he was good, and I think with the right pieces around him. He's also a really natural leader, and obviously with no me to doubt this World Cup, I think you can use a veteran defensive leader, been there, done that, and Celotti knows him inside and out. Trust him. Neymar, I genuinely don't know. I genuinely don't know. I think politically it would have been stupid for Carletto to not put him on the 55-man list, but they have to submit the final list by may 18th which i'm reliably informed is monday yeah so what's going to change in four or five days what like carletto's just going to sit there and like have a real think about like his doubts yeah he's done from 55 to 26 i mean that but that is a

59:36Julien Laurens:pretty big call like yeah but it's like the same for everyone like everybody issued a 55-month squad first i know but i almost i i'm genuinely curious if there's some countries that i mean we did curacao issue a 55 man squad giving their own it's more to prepare the clubs and the players that you might be called up right if you're not in the 55 you won't be called up but there's a lot i think it's more for that so it's like uh you like you kind of warn the clubs this is we might call this player this player that player so they know an administrative thing yeah exactly exactly I think when he started out he had a 98 man list and then whittled it down Alright Jules this brings us to an end but don't worry, we're going to be back on Monday after the FA Cup Final, after maybe some other answers this weekend from around Europe Until then, love the game, love your neighbour love yourself

1:00:40Thank you.