Gab & Juls Show: Can anyone get close to Arsenal?

23:10And it is much harder to operate. These rules exist for a reason. but it just does mean that they have a lot less latitude. And if you show up with a bag of cash like Arsenal did with Konza, then you have to accept. You have to. You have to probably accept. Yeah, yeah, of course. All right. Predictions. I will caveat this. We're recording this. It's August 20th. The window's still open. I reserve the right to change all my predictions. I'm going to keep my top four. I'm going to go City, Arsenal. Just City and Arsenal. You can go for your top two, really. I'm going to go City, Arsenal, Liverpool, and Chelsea.

23:55Okay, so United in fifth. Not even in fifth? I don't like these players as much as you do. I don't see Carrick's track record as positively as you do. I think when you don't play in Europe, you can come up with some kind of bogus results.

24:12Julien Laurens:Yeah, yeah. Fair enough. I've got Arsenal winning the league. I've got City second still. I've got Chelsea third because I think I believe in Xabi Alonso. Then between Liverpool and United, I'm waiting to see what Liverpool do next, obviously. But, you know, I'm happy I have United now and like for now in that fourth spot, Liverpool in fifth and Spurs and Villa battling out for sixth place. But I can easily have Liverpool ahead of United too. But I do believe in Carrick and in Xabi Alonso too. And like you said, guys, Before you turn into heaters, it's for now. It's August 20th. The wind is for now.

24:53Oh, oh, oh, O 'Reilly. Check engine, ABS, or maintenance light on? Take the guesswork out of your warning lights with O 'Reilly Veriscan. The service is free and provides a report with solutions verified by ASE-certified master technicians. And if you need help, we could recommend a shop for you. Ask for O 'Reilly Veriscan today.

25:17Julien Laurens:Oh, oh, oh, O 'Reilly. Auto Parts. All right, enough Premier League preview stuff. How about some quick hits instead? Oh, God. At the Liga de Madrid beat newly promoted Malaga as La Liga's staggered start kicks in. Jules, two pretty nifty goals. I'm an amazing freak here from Bayern L8. He came off the bench. He's not ready to start yet. And Kangin Lee with a lovely coming inside, kind of iron-robin finish, if you want, from the edge of the box. Even if everybody knew he was going to do that, it was still really good. All right, Tecker's corner here. We see people come in from the main cut inside and shoot.

26:02He's running really fast when he does it. How does he get the shot off so clean while moving so quick? That cannot be easy.

26:10Julien Laurens:Yeah, I think at that level, You see those goals a lot, like you said. So he's not... But not from Kang and Lee. Well, yeah, no. He's done it before. And it's more the defending for the Malaga players. There are three players. Two are turning their backs. It's really poor from them. But great finish. And also, there was nil-nil until then. And although they had chances, it was a little bit nervy then. At the Metropolitano, very mixed teams from El Cholo because you got to Su Dominguez, a 16-year-old centre-back, who's very promising. And the story of the summer for them is that Ortiz player on that left-hand side who look really sharp again, although he's 24 and this could be a breakthrough season.

26:48Julien Laurens:It's quite late. But yeah, I thought once everybody would be there and sharp and we saw Soloth, your friend in the stands with the misses. Yeah, Rademola Lukman up front. Who needs Julian Alvarez? I mean, exactly. But yeah, they will need to do better to compete with Real Madrid and Barcelona. But I thought that was an entertaining game and Malaga played some good football at the time. They would be decent. I think Malaga will stay up. And the back three. we'll see how that how long that continues I mean he checked out half time because that was not really no but with Romero there you assume that's what he wants to do yeah let's see and Gabio La Liga heavyweights make their debut this weekend what's your take on the title race it's obviously oh but you're going to pick Real Madrid or Barcelona right I get I get hate from Barcelona fans when I question what they do in the transfer window so I have a little circumspect on this one I think Mourinho is going to go at the other end because it's Mourinho he's going to go all in on Champions League or La Liga.

27:43If it comes up, if there's a tight title race, I think he will make a call. I think Real Madrid have strengthened to the point that they can only kind of stop themselves this season. And I think Barcelona, as we often see, when you won a title, when you won two titles, you start devoting more energy towards Europe. Obviously, Rodri's going to help. Who's going to score the goals up front? Do I like Kareem Adeyemi or Anthony Gordon as my center forward? Abdelkarim. He scored again last night against Al-Hair. The Iranian wonder kid.

28:16Julien Laurens:Egyptian wonder kid. Egyptian, yeah. Eight hundred years old. He looked sharp. Yeah, and obviously he's been in the system there for a couple of years. Hosama-san told me he reminds me of myself. You see? But we saw Lamin-Yama playing at number nine at training as well. That could be fun. That could be interesting. Yeah, I don't know if it's necessarily... I want to see a front view of Gordon, Lamine, and Rafinha on the right side, for sure. Lamine through the middle. Yeah, I would love to see. I want to see. I'm not saying that it's going to work. I would love to see it. Ligue 1 kicks off on Saturday, Jules.

28:48Not going to ask you to predict a winner.

28:49Julien Laurens:Tell us who else excites you and why. 12 teams of 18 change managers in the summer, and I think that's very exciting in itself. Some experience, like Dino Topmoller, who took over a loss, for example. And then you've got the younger ones. Ancelotti exactly Davide Ancelotti at Lille you've got Felipe Luiz at Monaco you even have Pep Genesio our friend in Marseille who's more with the top molotov type like the experienced ones more old yeah yeah the most experienced one not young like the other two but I think that's exciting let's see what kind of football they play it was a tough summer where a lot of clubs had to sell well and recruit with little but that's the reality of the French League so we're going to get and see more youngsters coming through more academy products and all of that which is very exciting in itself the question is not so much who's going to win it but more who will finish behind PhD in second, third, fourth all of that see what Paulo Fonseca can do with Lyon one of the rare clubs with a bit of stability there certainly on the bench but yeah it should be a really interesting season I can't believe you said Lyon and stability in the same sentence but we live in an exciting era but so many really interesting coaches to watch I know you have talents and all but the coaches pretty impressive absolutely and Liam Rossini is back in France.

30:05Julien Laurens:Will Steele is back in France too, so plenty to watch. Serie A also makes his debut this weekend. Gabi, who can challenge Inter? Again, what I said before about the Premier League applies even more to Serie A because, hey, let's look for last-minute shopping bargains as the market shutting down. I really like what Roma have done. I love the Punisher, Santiago Castro. And now that they've added Rodrigo Mora, that's exciting. Are they a little too young? I don't know. Inter have to be the favorites. I'm really intrigued, and I'm going to ask you later about Diego Moreira at Milan. Right now, I'm going to say Roma and Milan, but I reserve the right to change my mind many times over between now and September 1st.

30:47Jules, we're not done. We have more quick hits. Arsenal continue to run rampant in the transfer window. They've agreed a fee for Esri Consa too now, Jules.

30:57Julien Laurens:Yeah, they have. they I mean to be fair I think they wanted him through the whole summer I heard his name really early on in the summer even with the well with the injury to Saliba of course but also to strengthen that kind of like right hand side I would expect probably Ben White to to go now or Julian Timber is going to come back from injury as well that means you will have a lot of defenders they've spent a lot of money now on Bruno Guimares and Solis for really only the return of no guard a bit of money there but trossa especially that's not enough so i think they probably will have to sell they're trying to sell martinelli who said no to galatasaray for a fee around 45 million euros which i think awesome were very happy with but so let's see where they go but in terms of what cons i can bring i think that's for me it's an outstanding signing and a 50 million pound i think it's a really good value yeah i don't know how easy it is to find a taker for for ben white in terms of a place that he wants to go to.

31:56Yeah, absolutely. Because he can sit, I think he's got a year left on his contract. So he can sit tight and then kind of bide his time. I agree. They do need to call some money back. Gabriel Jesus as well. You're not going to get any money for him, but you'll get his wages off the bill. But yeah, I don't know. We don't know the inside workings, but I think it is laying down a pretty ambitious marker for this season.

32:18Julien Laurens:Across North London, Spurs have already spent big on Sandro Tonali, Mateus Fernandes and Jean-Paul Van Heek. But they're not stopping there. Gabi Roberto De Zerbe wants more attacking option and he's looking at Omar Marmouche and Savinho. Yeah. Well, we talked last week or on Monday about Omar Marmouche leaving. I think if Marmouche leaves, City have to buy another attacking player because you can't, I mean, Erling Haaland isn't actually a cyborg. You know that. He just looks like one. He can break down. He can. Even him, yeah. and then you know Semenyu Divine I don't I think you need another body in there Amar Moucha hasn't had the best of times of late why but the thing is these guys are going to be expensive the times are saying that City have been quoted Spurs a price of 85 million for Savinho nobody can pay that for Savinho nobody will ever pay 85 million for Savinho this is ridiculous but this is and if Savinho goes by the way they could be a little bit short handed in terms of wingers too yeah yeah Yeah, absolutely.

33:19I don't love Savinho. I certainly don't love him at 85 million. I personally wouldn't pay a third of that for Savinho. And certainly City can't lose Marmouche and Savinho in one goal. These prices to me seem like something...

33:30Julien Laurens:Unless they're replacing them, yes, for sure. Yeah, but they're also probably looking around and saying, well, we're working on our central midfielders. If you want us to replace them, we'll have to overplay. Then you overpay us for these guys so that we can overpay to replace these guys. Speaking of Manchester City, we talked extensively about their midfield rebuild. Enzo Fernandez and Ayubwadi could yet be on their way. So could Adam Wharton. He's been linked. Manu Kone has emerged as an alternative as well. Okay, I'm not going to ask you out of those four who would you take because you're going to tell me Enzo and Wharton.

34:02But Manu Kone versus Adam Wharton for City?

34:05Julien Laurens:I mean, I would love Manu Kone to go to City because I think they will take him to another level and I think he's got that potential. You don't think Roma can take him to another level? Paris-Born and Brad, of course. But I think the step up from Roma to City and the Premier League, where I think his skill set fits perfectly, would help. He's been offered to literally the whole of Europe this summer. Clearly, Roma would like to cash in on him, and I can understand that. But I think there's others before him for City. And Wharton, I think that's a really interesting one, because I can see him fitting City more than Liverpool, pulled certainly for Mareska more than for any Raul aside.

34:47I do wonder if you're Wharton do you go there and like this kid Buadi is coming now too like is he going to take my job? Do you know what I mean? If you're Wharton you want to move so you can play regularly.

34:58Julien Laurens:Yeah for sure and I think it's Wharton or Buadi you can't I don't think you need different profiles it would not be both. The Bundesliga kicks off in a week time because this weekend is the German Super Cup between Dortmund and Bayern but let's talk about Harry Kane. Gabi he's got a year left on his contract in Munich and would like a new three-year deal. Barca apparently are monitoring. Yeah, look, Harry Kane had a phenomenal season last year. He placed top in the FC 100 among forwards, something that maybe you didn't quite agree with. I didn't at all. But he shouldn't get a three-year deal. I think it's as simple as that.

35:37I know when he was born because he was born the same day I was. He was, indeed. Only 10 years later. Just a little bit younger than you. 20 years later, actually. And the same day as Michael Carrick as well. Yeah, true.

35:48Julien Laurens:Jules memorizes everybody's birthdays. I mean, I think this is a great quiz question about Gab Marko team. And Joan of Arc as well, also born July 20th. We're not sure about when she was born exactly. Record keeping wasn't quite the same back then. But Jackie Onassis too. I got to stop now. Look, Barcelona can keep monitoring all they want unless Harry Kane throws a tantrum and says refuses to play and moves in a free, he ain't coming. Have this conversation in a year's time. If he looks fit and he's available as a free agent, but yeah, no, I think Bayern got to where they are by, by being disciplined and they know that Harry Kane is a professional and he's not going to behave unprofessionally over a contract.

36:30If he contacts by the end of the season, he's going to give you everything. Michael Carrick also born July 28th. I just mentioned until it says he needs, he needed reinforcements in midfield. Now United linked with a 65 million pound move for Brighton's Carlos Baliba. Do you like this?

36:46Julien Laurens:So I think the profile is the right one in terms of that kind of power and energy and everything, both defensively and with the ball, ball carrying runs and stuff like that. I think this is great. 65 million for Baliba, who was worth twice that, probably, what, 18 months ago. So it shows you how quickly things can go because he didn't have a good season last year. I think he was still a bit hungover from not having the move that he thought he would get a year ago, for example, plus injuries and things like that. So you mentioned him earlier, Gabi, as a gamble. I think part of it I agree with you, yes, because he's far from his best form.

37:24Julien Laurens:He's been far from his best form for a bit now. I still think there's huge potential there. And if you unlock him, then he's great. You need to do your homework. You need to know exactly why Herzler last season decided. He just basically dropped him. I think he only made like 20 starts last night. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's talk Chelsea now, Gabby. Todd Bowley and Mark Walter are reportedly looking to sell the third of the club to the other ownership group, Clear Lake. I mean, we talked a lot before about their kind of ownership. Why is this important, significant, and can you just like explain it a bit better maybe for people?

37:55Yeah, basically Mark Walter and Todd Bowley used to work together at Guggenheim. They've been business partners in the past. Mark Walter is under investigation by the DOJ in the US for stuff to do with some insurance companies he has an interest in. He needs to come, reportedly needs to come up with money quickly. That's part of the reason why he sold the LA Lakers. And the thinking now is he wants to liquidate. I don't know how much this moves the needle because reportedly he needs to come up with billions. And his Chelsea stake, I think he paid maybe a couple hundred million for it. It could be worth more now because obviously if he's selling to Clear Lake, you have to sell to Clear Lake, or Clear Lake, I think you have to approve any new sale to another external guy.

38:41But the question is, has the value of Chelsea as a football club gone up from the 2.5 billion? And I'm not sure it has. They haven't built the stadium. Their results have been up and down. They've been out of Europe twice in three seasons. So I look at this. I don't know that... I can understand them wanting to get out and get some liquidity. That means Bedadé Bali and Jose Feliciano and the people at Clear Lake are going to have even more control at the club. Boli reportedly said, oh, no, because I think it's an open secret that they've fallen out. Yeah. Oh, no, no, I don't want to... I'm never going to sell to him.

39:18Well, now he may not have a choice. Yeah, Hans-Jörg Wiss is the other equity owner in that trio. This is sort of Chelsea-related, I guess. Milan have spent 50 million on Strasbourg's Diego Moreira. Do you like this, Jules?

39:34Julien Laurens:So I think it's a lot of money. It is a lot of money. It's too much money. I mean, I think Strasbourg could not believe their luck when that offer landed. I would say, though, a lot of good things about Diego Moreira. I really do. And I know he was on Chelsea's books at some point and they tried to bring him back. He didn't want to go back. I think if Milan was probably better for him, he would play more. He's a really versatile, talented boy he's only 22 just turned 22 earlier this month he's got pace he's got energy he's a great guy to have in your dressing room he would make the dressing room happy and and and and with great vibes I I could not speak more highly of him really 50 is a lot probably a bit too much I think his value is probably around 35 to 40 to be honest but there's great potential there and And again, at that age, I think they can make him a really, really, really good player.

40:29All right. So Gila, Diego Moreira, Gonzalo Ramos, they've spent a lot of money. Close to$150 million. Yeah. Nobody's giving you crazy money for Laos. And with Laos, by the way, it changes one week. Oh, yeah, we're going to keep. Oh, no, he's going to go. We're going to keep. Yeah, we hear Fafana, Tamori. Maybe Tamori is going to replace Conza. Yeah, I think it's. How much money are you going to get from Tamori? with a year left at his age, right?

40:56Julien Laurens:Like, how's this going to work, Jules? I know, I know. We'll have to see what happens between now and the end of the window for sure. Kevin Lamour, FIFA's de facto third in common who published that scathing letter attacking Gianni Fontino has officially left. Gabby, what does that mean and what happens next? So we knew he was going to leave. It's obviously like, you know, FIFA have learned from football clubs, like, oh, like, you know, mutual consent. But there's nothing mutual consent about this, right? effectively and his position became untenable. And I'm sure FIFA rightly went there more.

41:30If you don't believe in what we're doing, then why don't you resign? You're like, I'm not going to resign. You have to fire me. No, it costs too much money. Okay. So let's come up with, this is how, this is how corporations work. Yeah. That's the reality of it. I think what happens is what we've said is happening. It will continue to happen for the next two, for the next couple of months is people are going to go drum up support, see if there's a value, a viable candidate. Could he be the guy? Kevin Lemoore? I don't think so.

41:58Julien Laurens:No, he's not the biggest profile enough. He's very light, but yeah, he's not. Drum up support. Next week, of course, there's Champions League draw in Monaco. So all the UEFA big wigs will get together. And you. I will be there as well. Of course. You're a big wig too. Exactly. And I think UEFA have to start thinking about their next move because obviously the women's Euros is up next. And already there's a... That's right, the women's... Under 20. Women's under 20 World Cup. So this threat of not playing European teams, it's really interesting because PR wise, people are already pushing the opposite narrative.

42:33Like we said about like, oh, UEFA, you hate women's football. This is why you're denying these young women. If UEFA is serious about boycotting this, what they need to do, and maybe what they are doing is put together a plan that says, all right, we're boycotting this because we need it's more important. We're going to organize a series of games in these stadiums for these players. And we're going to lay out a plan. We're going to even fund it if we have to. So Poland don't, the Polish FA, the organizers don't lose money. And instead of playing this in September, we're going to go and we're going to, we're going to play a different one.

43:07Or if Johnny goes as we want, we're going to play this in the spring or whatever. There's a lot of gaps in women's under 20 football in the fixture list where they can do this. But they have to be smart about how they do it because this narrative about, you know, all women are paying the price. No, no, no. They're more even made right. These aren't professional women. It's under 20 Women's World Cup. It has to happen. It has to happen in the right conditions. It just happens that it's the first FIFA competition. Jamal Musiala has announced he has a neurological dysfunction, his words, after he collapsed for the second time in two friendly games.

43:44I was going to mention this on Monday, and then I thought, oh, well, he said his blood, the first thing he said, blood sugar was low, whatever. You're medically adjacent. and I think the responsible thing is to speculate on somebody else's medical condition without being a doctor, without actually having, no, I'm kidding, but it's scary.

44:02Julien Laurens:All we take is word, because he looked scary, to be fair, watching it. I think if you look at, if you remember Saibari's face when it happened, because he was quite close by, and obviously Saibari has been scarred forever of what happened to Nuri many years ago at Ajax, But then I think we can take the words of Jamil Moussala, who was very open at the whole body and saying, listen, this is something that happens to me. That has always happened to me. I'm kind of used to. They've explained to me what it was. It might look scary for me. It's not scary. Bayern didn't seem that worried either, to be fair.

44:41Julien Laurens:So at least now we know and he's out there and maybe everybody can kind of deal with it in the best way. It doesn't look like his life is in danger when he's on the football pitch. I think he's different to an Ericsson type, if you want, or a Mouramba type. But when you see it happening, it is really scary. Look, again, we're not doctors. We don't know. We only take what he has shared. And I think he has to be applauded for his transparency. If this is going to happen, I don't remember this happening before. I mean, he says it's happened to him all his life. Maybe it did. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know.

45:17On the pitch, I don't recall. I don't recall it either. Also, you can't have this happening on the pitch. You can't be playing and then, oh, look, he's fine. But, like, we just make a substitution. Yeah, I agree. It does, I think, call into mind a broader debate about the sort of tests that football clubs do on players, the players' responsibility, the club's responsibility. I don't know if there's a cure or a treatment for this, but yeah, I think it's obviously the best solution for everyone that it gets better.

45:50Julien Laurens:Inter and Liverpool have reached a deal over Curtis Jones. It's around€30 million plus five in bonuses. Is it a good move, Gabby? Obviously, Liverpool think it's a good move because they've been trying to get rid of him when he wouldn't. I have to say, I think he's a really good player. I don't understand why. Unless they need money, which might be the reason. I think it's because they weren't. So it's all pure profit, as we always say. Yeah, they weren't willing to commit to a multi-year contract at the level that he wanted to for him. Yeah. And I think he wanted to play regularly. He looked around and he says, well, who's ahead of me in this?

46:26You know, at the start of last season, he was drawing those four, two, three ones. Not even Soboslai was in the starting lineup. So he was like, what, like number five, number six. And he's like, I don't want to be taken for granted. I don't want to play right back. Right. So I think he's going to bring energy to Inter. He's going to bring physicality. We know that certain types of players in the Premier League can do well in Serie A. He's also battle tested, been there, done that, Inter get younger. So from their perspective, it's fine. The transfer fee is not very high. No, it's good. As you would expect for a guy with a year left.

46:55I mean, compared to Rodri's fee. I'm not even saying that Rodri and Curtis Jones are in the same galaxy. but we are talking about a guy who is five years younger. Right. That said, it all depends on, on, on the salary. Some of the early leaks is that it was relatively high. If it's manageable, if they've structured it with bonuses, Inter's owners have been very careful the last couple of years. They've actually made the club profitable, which I thought was unthinkable. So for them, it's a good pickup for Liverpool. Yeah. You've got to get this cash in. now you need to replace him because it's one less body as well yeah who's who's Liverpool's fourth midfielder right now fourth and numbers four and five

47:40Julien Laurens:yeah I mean behind McAllister Sobosla and Gravenberg then you look at Trenioni yeah who they have a lot of hopes for Endo can't be your fourth midfielder he's 100 years old yeah yeah yeah so yeah at least two are in Cummings for sure and the other thing is he's a scouser so now I guess is Rio a scouser too? Yeah, absolutely. Okay, so at least that continues. Let's talk Champions League qualification playoffs, Jules. It finishes 1-1 between Olympique Lyonnais and Fenerbahce in Istanbul. My boy Paolo Fonseca can be hopeful. Good result, yeah? Yeah, good performance too. Not just the result. They were a bit unlucky because they considered an incredible solo goal by Mason Greenwood.

48:23Julien Laurens:The goal was outstanding. Fenerbahce as a team were not impressive at all. especially in the first half. When Lyon was solid, Tanya Tessman, the US international, Arthur was really good, played really well, Greg Goldbach, Penda, Tolisso. So, it's, the second leg will be in Lyon, obviously, on Wednesday night. So, they've got hopes. This, this is huge for Lyon. They need that money of the Champions League. That's a minimum 25 million euros for them if they make it to the league phase and then potentially more if they, you know, if they do well and continue and qualify for the knockout. So it's huge.

48:59Julien Laurens:And that game on Tuesday is also huge for Fener, who've spent all that money. Lukaku came off the bench late. I was so psyched. You said he wouldn't play. And then he just... Yeah, well, I didn't expect him to play. Not start for sure, but yeah, even. But like, how awesome is this? Like, I get a little bit of Lukaku. I mean, imagine if they start Mariki and Lukaku up front. Like, kind of like... He came on for Mariki, but yeah. Yeah, but imagine them two together as a front two. How can you defend that? You can't. I don't know, man. It's crazy. So we see. it should be a really, really epic second leg and make sure you watch it because I think it would be very special.

49:31Julien Laurens:And looking at other Champions League playoff games, Gabi, also after the first legs, it looks like we're going to have some new faces and some old ones. Yes, Celtic with a big home win over Lintz. So you're 3-0, so you assume that they're going to be in. The others, though, are all, and Bodo Glimt as well, who, you know, now are like, have become an old name. Yes. But a 3-1 win away to Nijmegen, I think that tells you that, you know, they're still definitely up for it. It's great to have them back because they're a good story. The other is all very much on a knife edge. Lesky, Sofia and AK Athens, obviously being Italian, like I want the Greek team to go through.

50:12Sure. Una razza, una razza. Slovan Bratislava against Selye. We get to see some new faces. That's pretty cool. And yeah, Torre is the coach of Slovan Bratislava. I thought Bratislava also have Barca in the, if you get a chance, watch the highlight. I was harassing Jules about this before. You're obsessed with him now. A ridiculous assist with the first goal. Hapal Bersheva against Saba from Azerbaijan. Bersheva, of course, from Israel. I don't think we've ever had a team from Israel or Azerbaijan. In this new format, no. In this new format. And Vikings to Vengert, they drew 2-2 away to Dimozaga.

50:45But we could have, and the opening goal was a tremendous goal as well. We could have two Norwegian teams. Imagine. Who the fuck get? Wow, pretty cool.

50:54Julien Laurens:Liam DeLapp no it's my question for you Liam DeLapp has lost a number nine shirt for the upcoming season the shirt's going to go to Joel Pedro he's wearing number 12 which where I come from belongs to backup keepers then again Robert Sanchez a lot of people don't really like him he's a big boy he could not

51:19Chelsea denies oh no it's normal look he and Nico and Tosin and they're training off by themselves. Weirdly, like Danny Welbeck and Jordan Henderson are training with them too. I'm assuming it's not because they're looking, look, they're not leaving the club. They just arrived. I don't know. I think Nico Jackson's going to find a home. I wonder, Delap now with Emega coming in and Morgan Rodgers and so on. But Delap is a different profile. I'm kind of surprised. I would have thought you would try to develop him for another season. After one year, you're not going to make, nobody's going to give you more than what you paid for it.

51:54So you're not even going to play the amortization game.

51:56Julien Laurens:Is he going to go on loan? I don't know. Back to Ipswich maybe? Yeah, maybe. I mean, loan is probably the best option, I think, unless you get a£50 million offer from somewhere. I don't think you will get that. But then I never thought that somebody would pay what Leeds paid for Trafford either after a season on the bench. So you never know clearly with this window and the Premier League clubs. But it must be humiliating. you know if you're if you're the lab and you did nothing wrong okay you showed your limits at time sure and we've been quite critical of him but rightly so i think uh but when you don't even get your squad number also the one that you had before i think it's a bit embarrassing and humiliating but he's known from the whole summer that they wanted to offload him let's see where he can find um can i help him go on me and help him and help my friend richard hughes too You think, you know what, earlier I thought...

52:49Six months on loan? Honestly, because look, I'm assuming, I don't know who's up front for Ipswich, maybe you do, I don't watch the championship. So obviously I would assume that...

52:57Julien Laurens:They signed Emerson record signing. Okay, so that's probably not going to happen, right? I mean, so yeah, they put a lot of money on him. With Ikitike out until January, if you want a guy who's going to give you physical presence and effort, and maybe back up Isak, rather than screwing around and Gakwa up front and this and that. Like, there's no shame in it, right? No, no, no, yeah. Like, you do it, have an option, right? That if you fix the option at 50 million or something, Chelsea will get their money back and some amortization magic as well. And you pay a loan fee. Like, I think this is a better option.

53:38You got somebody who knows the league will give you effort.

53:40Julien Laurens:It's the most likely is that with a club, whether it's Liverpool or somebody else. Probably not Liverpool. Probably somebody pitched further down. Yeah, yeah. It is, I don't understand just giving up on him like this. And like I said, different, bro. Emiga does not have the physicality of the lap, right? No, no, no. Nobody has the physicality of the lap. He's got the pace, though, but yeah, not the physicality. He's not as strong. Why? In fact, I'll give you another one. Why does Nico Jackson have to be sold again? Just to make money, yeah? Yeah, I think so. Yeah, definitely. Ridiculous. Jose Mourinho, Pierre-Donel Chiringuito in Spain addressed his relationship with Vinicius after the ugly racism incident with Gianluca Prestiani.

54:15Julien Laurens:remember in the Real Madrid-Benfica game in the Champions League last season. Gab, what did he say? Well, he said exactly what I expected him to say. You know, like they asked him, before they asked him about that, they asked him about La Mignamante, oh, would you want to work with La Mignamante? He's like, no, because I work with somebody better. Ha ha. You know, like, so it's just Mourinho show stuff. He did say that, you know, he's found ways to protect himself from that part of who he is, I suppose the part of him that goes insane and pokes people in the eye but the Pristiani thing was interesting because this is how Mourinho sees football and a lot of people in football see it that way he said Pristiani was my player so there was no discussion I was going to defend him he told me he was innocent but even that because you know he's not innocent he's not stupid my player I'll defend him Vini's my player now I will go to war with him and you know that Mourinho will go to war for his own players, at least as long as he needs them.

55:16Jules, Premier League referee boss, Howard Webb, did his media briefing. He said a lot of interesting things. He said the Baloggin case was concerning because it opens up conspiracy theories, which, by the way, you can say, oh, thank you, Captain Obvious, but people need to speak up about this. This is really, really bad. So thank you, Howard, for doing that. We also found out that RefCam this season will include audio.

55:36Julien Laurens:Yeah, that's good. I think it was something that we saw RefCam was great. I think the audio will help in some incidents too. And people will understand. We know how players talk to referees and how referees talk to players because we've been in the game long enough. A lot of players don't really know that kind of dynamic. It's good. They will also publish some weekly judgment from the key match incident panel, which reviews a lot of the incident and things like that. So they want more transparency, which I think we all are okay with that. And for the conspiracy theories and what happened to Balogun in the record of the World Cup.

56:08Julien Laurens:imagine if like somebody I don't know Liverpool or Man United called Andy Burnham or Everton because that's Andy Burnham's club you know and said Ily Manojad just got sent off is there anything you can do with that red card it would be fun yeah I don't know that one and by the way if I ever run into the leaders of USSF who were part of the process as they put it I will ask them flat out about this so yeah JT avoid me but they also I'm sorry I don't want to, Howard Webb as a referee, we like some things he did, some things he didn't do. I think he's doing all the right, he's doing exactly, I mean, I would say this, he's doing exactly what I would do.

56:47He also, they also want to make the audio from the VAR room public as well. IFEB has said no to that. They're not allowed to do that, but this is what they want to do. I think it's fantastic. It's good, yeah. You can always criticize and whatever, but he's making the right decisions there.

57:02Julien Laurens:On Monday, we told you that a group, including Jeff Bezos and Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin and led by Amit Batia had acquired 33 % of shares in Liverpool actually Gabi is 38 % why is that significant? So I want to fuel the whole Liverpool conspiracy sphere so the news that came out on Friday saying they won 33 % so like a third of yeah that came from the club presumably they had agreed everything the contracts are right and then obviously the contracts get published and people get notified and it's 38%. Why give out the wrong number when the real number is going to come out a few days later?

57:45That's what a lot of people are querying. You know. Why is that for?

57:49Julien Laurens:Why? Yeah, why? Do you know? Do you have an idea? I have no idea. I don't care to speculate. It does maybe mean that the price is going to be a little bit lower than we thought. It doesn't fundamentally change things, but somebody in Liverpool screw up. I'd like to hear an explanation. Monaco have terminated Paul Pogba's contract. This was a while ago. We're talking about it now. Jules, I'm coming in terms of the fact that I'm not going to see him again. Oh, no, you will see him again, Gabby. You will see him again, just not in France, not in Europe probably now. Kings League? It would be, yeah.

58:24Julien Laurens:No, it would be like MLS or Saudi Arabia where apparently they already have some contacts there. It was another injury. He played, you know, friendly in preseason and did quite well actually, wearing the armband as well, but could not stay fit. And I think Monaco, who already obviously were without him a lot of last season and tried that gamble of a two-year contract, but were very clear if that first season doesn't work, the contract won't go to the end. And I think Paul was in agreement with that. It's a shame because I think we all got a bit excited when he got to Monaco and said, what if he could stay fit?

59:01Julien Laurens:Will we see him back close to his level? That won't happen. certainly not at the top, top European level. So let's see where he goes. I hope he finds some happiness somewhere because he's been another frustrating... He wants to keep playing? Yeah, yeah, he does. Definitely, yeah. He will go somewhere else. I just don't know where yet and I don't know how much he's going to play because fitness seems, again, to be the biggest problem. If you're going to hire him, I mean, he has enough money, presumably it's going to be some pay-for-play type contract. You're right, absolutely. Gab, why is the Bundeskartel...

59:33Julien Laurens:Bundeskartelamt! Hampt. And why are we talking about them? Because it's kind of like the German antitrust. And basically they came out with a ruling that, yeah, it's okay for German football to have the so-called 50 plus 1 rule. And in other words, it's a way of maintaining fan ownership. Now, obviously there's carve-outs, there's exceptions. Wolfsburg, Bayer Leverkusen, and so on. Hoffenheim, Leipzig, although they did it in a slightly different way. And some people wanted to see them a ruling that made it illegal so that they could get big investment, foreign owners or even rich German owners.

1:00:12They don't have to be foreign. But no, it's going to maintain, it's going to keep it like this. I personally think it's a positive thing. I don't see the benefits of an arm race in football ever. so and a lot of people as we know fans of the Bundesliga as in I think are probably the most passionate because if you don't like fans of La Liga are probably mostly fans of Barcelona and Real Madrid rather than fans of like the whole institution fans of the Premier League get a little bit cynical fans of Serie A even more so yeah yeah but fans who love the Bundesliga they really love the Bundesliga they love the fan power and so on and 50 plus 1 is one of the big things that makes the Bundesliga what it is Axel Witzel has found a home and it's still by the sea after leaving Girona the Belgian golden generation OG will be taking his skills to Nice well he'll still get excellent seafood

1:01:06Julien Laurens:yeah 37 years young for Witzel like the last challenge show I think he's they had a few injuries they lost one of the midfielders that they bought in the in the summer who had come in and that was that was bad for them so they needed some sort of urgency there. They signed him. I think he wants to stay a bit longer and do like a Dante. That's certainly what he explained to the media yesterday on Sunday or on Wednesday or on Tuesday. Wait, is Dante still there? No, but it's generally like Dante 1941. I think he's there. When did he leave? He went Dante. Did he go somewhere else? He's now the coach of Bayern's under-21s.

1:01:47Wow.

1:01:48Julien Laurens:So I think the idea for Witzel was like, hey, maybe I can be a bit of your new Dante kind of thing. And look, Witzel was like, hey, look, I can grow big hair as well, just like Dante. He's got that already. So let's see. But I like that because I think Witzel could have gone to probably more lucrative destinations and offers because Nice don't have much money to offer. But I'm glad he took that challenge on. Wait, Nice don't have much money. Why? Do they not have a generous owner who's a brilliant billionaire businessman? I think the tabs are not working anymore. The training ground and in the offices.

1:02:19Julien Laurens:Como are pursuing Milan, Samuel Ricci, and Fiorentina, Mozzie Kane, both of whom happen to be Italian. Gab, just like you, are Como just realizing now that there are homegrown player requirements in the Champions League where they will be playing this season? I should ask you this. You're the one where the Como shirt. I'm just wondering. Yeah, I know. You know, I thought, hey, they're the vibe of the moment. They signed Mattia Liberale, who is very close to where my mom's side of the family is from in suburban Milan. Shout out to Lissone by the way, former Milan guy. They're very excited about him.

1:02:52But yeah, you need to have four guys from your own academy and you need to have four guys who are association-trained players, which if you're in an Italian club means they have to be Italian. They've got various backup goalkeepers and various dreck that they like kind of inherited. But last year, the team was entirely made up of foreigners. Ricci and Ken are not going to come cheap. It seems strange to me that we're in mid-August and this club's been all about planning, all about being smart and everybody else, it seems like, oh, look, we're only kind of realizing this now that we need to do this.

1:03:25If you don't have them, you don't have those Champions League slots and you do it with 17 players. Maybe that's what they'll do. Cuomo likes to do things differently. Patrick Vieira is the new Semigle coach.

1:03:36Julien Laurens:Jules, your thoughts? I absolutely love this. I have to say, not just because, obviously, we love Patrick and we know him really well and he's a friend, but because for somebody who had at times maybe a bit of a difficult relationship with the country where he was born, but obviously didn't live because he moved to France when he was really young. But the last 15 or 20 years, he has really reconnected with that country. He set up the John Bars Academy, which is for the young talents in Senegal that has provided a lot of players who went on to have a really good career, became pro, changed the whole dynamic for the region, for example, Poland for a lot of kids of those generations.

1:04:17Julien Laurens:And now I think this is wonderful for him to have that chance to take his country really, or his second country if you want, or his other country to big tournaments, to try to win trophies with a great generation coming through as well. It's very exciting. I'm so, so happy for him. And I think he's a really good pick from the Federation. I'm very happy for him too. I also think he's probably had some, I don't think he's been treated as well as he should have been by some of the clubs that he was at that then let him go. I think he's a smart guy and I think he's got everything to be a top coach.

1:04:54And now he's going to have really top players. If the federation stick with him, and I think we saw with the previous guy's name escapes me right now, they're willing to stick with somebody even when he's getting criticism because you get a lot of criticism. Oh, yeah. Because the expectations are so high. because he's so much talent. But I think if Patrick Vieira can navigate that, let's see what happens. Next AFCON in Uganda, I think. Yeah. So there you go. Yeah.

1:05:22Julien Laurens:Chelsea have rebranded their under 21 team as Kobam next gen. Do you understand why? And do you like this new name? Kobam is where Chelsea's training ground is. So why you would divorce Chelsea, which is your brand. So they're not called Chelsea FC. They're not called Chelsea. So in this like under 21 league that the Premier League has. And in the UEFA Youth League and stuff. So it would be Arsenal against Cobham Next Gen. Yes. Is this like a video game? It's like the kind of thing that we use on PlayStation when we play video games. Or where you rebrand your team. Yeah, yeah. Jules' Boys. Yeah, exactly.

1:06:00Or your FPL team. Look, if you want to get people talking about it, this is one way to do it. if you, Chelsea have had for years, right, arguably the best youth academy. The best pipeline. They already, in their release, they pointed out that their under-21 team is actually an under-18 team, right? So you really want to emphasize that brand maybe because maybe later you want to spin it off and claw some money back? I don't know. I honestly don't know what it is. It's something a marketing guy came up with, but we are talking about it.

1:06:37Julien Laurens:I don't love the next-gen side. So the next-gen in Italy, that's because Juve have a next-gen team, but that's the whole name of the whole of that. It's called Juventus next-gen. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it's not like Milan's B team. It's called Milan Futuro, like future Milan. Yeah, yeah. But you keep the name of your club in it. Or you can call yourself, which I think some other clubs have done, like, you know, Inter under 23. You can do that too. You know, like, it's yeah it's a gear but look this looks like they didn't have the right to call themselves Chelsea Next Gen so they put Cobham as the closest again like a video game that they don't have the right for I think maybe I think it's more like they really want to push the like Cobham as a brand yeah yeah but fair play to that I don't have I have less of it they know people are going to make fun of them yeah I have less of an issue with it that you're trying something different yeah sure I don't think it's scandalous if they're happy I'm happy If you were to rebrand Chelsea as London FC, then we might have a problem.

1:07:41West London FC. This brings us to an end, but what do you say we come back Monday? Yeah, sure. And go back over the first week of the season in England, in Italy, for Real Madrid and Barcelona and France as well. Until then, love the game. Love your neighbor. Love yourself.

1:08:04Thank you.