Gab & Juls Show: Controversy as Inter beat Juventus

17:23Gab Marcotti:And also, even as a winger, sometimes you do have to cover the far post.

17:27Julien Laurens:But it's not even that difficult to just say, okay, I've got a player here. Put your arm so he doesn't come in front of you. So it's not easy to go to Inter. And for Juve, I think, to, yeah, I agree with you, to play like that. It's just a bit disappointing from them that at 2-2, with everything that happened, they could not keep that one point that would have been very precious.

17:46Gab Marcotti:And let's remind yourselves where they were at the start of the season. Yeah, true. And that's Paletti came in. And again, I don't want to make it seem like I'm now his biggest fan. No, baby. Because I don't. I think he's weird and he's responsible for many of the bad things happening in our national team. But he's doing a phenomenal job. Yeah, he's doing a great job. And he's improving individual players. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I think that's pretty remarkable. It's a big win for Inter, though. Massive win. Huge win for Inter. Milan, of course, play this evening. No, they won't. Sorry, they have a game in hand.

18:17Gab Marcotti:It's a game against Colmo. so who knows what Cesc Fabregas has planned. But it is at home. But this is a big step, I think, towards the title.

18:31Gab Marcotti:I think this seems to seem more complete than last season. I think Akanji's brought something. I think he's just a better-rounded player than Pavard. Younger player, too, if only by a year or two. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And now they also have alternatives off the bench. I mean, Francesco Pio Esposito scoring a great goal. I think Turan plays better with Esposito than he does with Lautaro.

18:57Julien Laurens:Yeah, yeah. I think Bonny is a good option to have off the bench. And Zelensky, who scored the winner in this game that started, but you would usually have him on the bench probably. It's a great asset to have as well in a game like this. It's a lovely winning goal. and yeah, I think that's the game maybe where, because even if Milan win the game in hand, they're five points behind. But there's the Derby, so they have two points. Yeah, maybe. But if they had dropped points there, then I think, you know. Oh yeah, oh yeah. The pressure would have been on.

19:28Gab Marcotti:100%, 100%. So yeah, I don't think it's far from over, but they did take a big step. And for Juve, part of the reason it's so angry when you touched upon it before is even just for continued growth, balancing the books, they have to qualify for the Champions League and they're hanging out in fourth place we're almost just one point behind.

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21:05Julien Laurens:Yeah.

21:05Gab Marcotti:Jules, are you surprised to hear that it is second goal in all competitions since November 1st?

21:10Julien Laurens:No, I'm not because as we know, it hasn't been a really good season for him. I'm still questioning the other day him starting in this team. This was the better game from him. There's the penalty, there's the assist for Soboslai. He puts it nicely with his right foot in the path of Soboslai with a great finish. But I thought Brighton were the perfect team for this Liverpool team to have fun and enjoy it because they come and play and they're so open and so easy to attack against. It was very good. I'm not sure how much this is a turning point in Mo Salah's season really, but let's see next weekend.

21:47Gab Marcotti:I'm going to give Arnaz Slott some credit here because whatever bridges need to be rebuilt have obviously been rebuilt. I thought this was better for him. I think there's a coaching aspect to this. I think the same way Milos Kerkas is getting better as the season goes on. and I want to say something about Salves Lai too when everybody was after the summer spending period everybody was drawing up their 4-2-3-1 Salves Lai wasn't in it Salves Lai was destined for the bench now he's played more minutes than any outfield player at Liverpool except for Van Dijk No Mbappé

22:16Julien Laurens:no Bellingham but Vinicius wins and converts two penalties as Real Madrid beat Real Sociedad 4-1 with those big Benfica games coming up this was important

22:24Gab Marcotti:yeah look there's some huge positives to come out of this the first one was the Benaville was definitely muted.

22:32Julien Laurens:Yeah.

22:32Gab Marcotti:But at least they weren't booing.

22:34Julien Laurens:Yeah.

22:34Gab Marcotti:That is a step forward. It was a bit calmer. Everything. Gonzalo Garcia scored. You showed that...

22:42Julien Laurens:After five minutes. So he helps to like, you know...

22:43Gab Marcotti:It certainly helps. And I feel sorry. I should shout out to Rino Matarazzo. You had to lose at some point. Yeah. Vini winning the two penalties against Aramburu. He does what he does. Yeah, yeah. Those are the positives. The negatives, I don't think this lineup is viable when everybody's fit you're not actually building towards anything so sure if Vini has a guy behind him in Camavinga and a left back then I don't care that he doesn't defend, go ahead and run around up front do your thing, also because Gonzalo Garcia will do that can you have that lineup if it's him and Mbappe up front? I'm not sure I think he might try Trent Alexander-Arnold back with an assist How about that?

23:27Gab Marcotti:Really lovely assist. I thought he was good in the game too. First start since early December for him. And Dean Heysen, still struggling, gave away the penalty. I feel for him. I'm a Heysen guy. He's going to be just fine. But right now... It's a tough, tough season. Manchester City beat Salford 2-0. And Pep says the game was boring. What does he mean?

23:50Julien Laurens:Yeah, he was just boring. They had a lot of the ball. Didn't really create much. No shots on target. four overall in the first half, despite 85 % possession. Exactly. Not nice. I mean, I fell asleep watching this game, I won't lie. And you were there. I would have still fallen asleep if I'd been there. You pick your battles as well. There's much bigger games to come. And as long as they qualify, which they did, it's probably the most important. I think everybody will forget this game very quickly.

24:18Gab Marcotti:Yeah, and I can say something. I mean, this is not to diss the magic of the FA Cup. Salford City, you know you complained about Chelsea against Arsenal and the Rossini approach. Remember, we disagreed. Yeah, yeah, yeah, the league cap. Okay, so City go ahead after six minutes. What's the Salford City plan? All right, guys, lads, keep it tight at the back. I just defend.

24:41Julien Laurens:Yeah, so you don't lose 10-1 like Exeter did the round before.

24:46Gab Marcotti:I mean, to be fair to them, Trafford had to make a couple saves, so they almost pulled it off.

24:51Julien Laurens:But as a spectacle, it looks absurd.

24:53Gab Marcotti:It does.

24:54Julien Laurens:And sticking with City, Rodri is facing a ban, Gab, for his comments after the 2-2 draw with Tottenham earlier this month. What did he say?

25:01Gab Marcotti:I feel for Rodri. I'm going to defend Rodri here a little bit. So what he said, if you take the quote, which I will read now, is, I know we've won too much and the people don't want us to win, but the referee should be neutral. And for me, honestly, it's not fair. He was talking, this was after the game where you had the gay on Solanke incident. Yeah. I don't think he's a, you can criticize the referee for performance. You can't accuse him of bias. You can't accuse him and he's not neutral. I don't know. Obviously, this is not his first language. Obviously, he speaks English. He's been here several years.

25:34Gab Marcotti:I hope he does not get banned for this. I don't want this to set a precedent.

25:38Julien Laurens:Yeah.

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28:16Julien Laurens:Yeah, I think he needed that. Michael Arteta needed that from him too to assist. He was very good in that kind of playmaking way. There was a last-minute change, so Bucao Saka, who was supposed to be on the bench, started in midfield because Maduike was already the starter on the right wing.

28:32Gab Marcotti:And this was because Calafiore, who was supposed to start, He got to do a warm-up. I left back. Might as well with Skelly. He was like, yes, I finally get to see him in midfield. No, he has to go play left back.

28:42Julien Laurens:Exactly, yeah. So a last-minute change, but Arsenal were four-nil up after 27 minutes, I think, or 29 minutes or something. And we wondered if they would go and score more goals. And as you like it, Gabi, they just basically controlled the rest of the game pretty much. Did not run up the score unnecessarily well.

29:00Gab Marcotti:Wigan facing relegation to League 2. That would have just been me. Exactly. And by the way, Victor Gjokoros, one of the reasons I prefer Kai Havertz the best on earth is that he didn't get the memo. He hit the post in the second half.

29:10Julien Laurens:I know. Exactly. Guy, you went here when Tottenham sacked the man with two first names. Were you in a favorite? So what's your take of it? And what do you expect from the guy replacing him until the end of the season? Who got ego to, though?

29:21Gab Marcotti:I'm guessing that with Tottenham not involved in the FA Cup and obviously not involved in the Champions League playoffs, he has it a little chunk of time now.

29:31Julien Laurens:Yeah, 12 days.

29:31Gab Marcotti:To go and maybe have an impact. Igor Trudor has a weird history of taking over during the season and turning things around quickly and then screwing things up later. It's good that he's an interim appointment. If he does well, then you let him apply for the job. But you don't even think of appointing a new guy until you've gotten your co-sporting director, which supposedly you're looking for. I certainly wouldn't let Johan Lange go and make a decision on his own at this stage because he's the guy who brought Frank in the first place.

30:05Julien Laurens:Yeah.

30:05Gab Marcotti:The other mystery which I would love to hear, what's the deal with Johnny Hitinga? He's still in the coaching stuff now? Okay, so you bring Johnny Hitinga to help Thomas Frank at the start of January and I'm assuming, you know, like I said, like he's going to knife him in the back and take over since Johnny Hitinga is not just some rando first team that plays this guy. He's an actual, you know, manager, right? He's been an assistant before. I think it has nothing to do with Tudor Why is he still there? I don't know

30:33Julien Laurens:Maybe he's left But I haven't heard So Why did he quite keep But even Tudor Tudor is a Paratici appointment No, a Lange or Vinay Van Ketashane appointment So that even in itself is weird Paratici doesn't work for the club anymore I know And the guy who hired Paratici

30:51Gab Marcotti:Daniel Levy is not powerless I know I made the connection to I was definitely told that he was a Paratici i think candidate i genuinely don't know i will text them though and ask him um you see it would

31:04Julien Laurens:be pretty grotesque but that's not your longer of inai who thought about ego to door i can guarantee you that that name was mentioned to them before if that's the case then what

31:15Gab Marcotti:they must think what did the lewis family do well no but i mean what they're still paying Paratici? Are you giving advice? It's a weird one. Jules, some people hate VAR. Do you think that they may change their minds after the refereeing horse show in Newcastle's 3-1 win away to Aston Villa?

31:35Julien Laurens:Yeah, that was a bad one. As you would know, VAR only comes from the next round of the FA Cup, so from the quarter finals onwards. So there was no VAR here to help the referee. Anthony Kavanagh, is Anthony's first name? Graham Kavanagh.

31:50Gab Marcotti:Chris Cavanaugh. Graham Cavanaugh.

31:52Julien Laurens:Chris Cavanaugh.

31:53Gab Marcotti:He was a Sunderland midfielder

31:54Julien Laurens:with a grey hair.

31:54Gab Marcotti:Yeah, Chris Cavanaugh

31:55Julien Laurens:who had a shocker, absolute shocker from very early on. And he's an experienced referee. Yeah, yeah, he is. He's had a really bad day. But maybe he forgot how to referee when VAR was not there to help him because Tommy Abraham is clearly offside on his goal but nobody sees it. That's down to his assistant. Yeah, apart from missing from the television. Dan Luka Dink should have been sent off absolutely for his tackle but again everybody can see on television or in the stadium but not the referees all of them and then maybe the worst because this one is so obvious but look at him he's a good two yards into his own box when he raises his arm and blocks the cross from Trippier everybody can see it the linesman is right there and yet they give a free kick just outside of the box do we think that I mean

32:39Gab Marcotti:so many mistakes in one goal right so many guys make one mistakes right are they just so accustomed to VAR they must be because it's a Premier League refereeing crew right they must be that they're like oh wait oh yeah i'll just like wait wait for the lines to appear and they'll sort it out or yeah

32:54Julien Laurens:yeah i don't know it's so strange at least newcastle won so because it would have been very harsh for them with everything that happened i had they lost that game so at least they won the only thing they got right is the bizarre red card which again is a no-brainer like if they had got that one wrong then i think they would have never refereed again but let's see if if kavanaugh because we don't know yet i think the referees for the for next weekend in the when the primary comes back so let's see but i wouldn't be surprised if he had a couple of weekends off now yeah yeah

33:22Gab Marcotti:i i think he's going to be trumped nobody likes making mistakes yeah exactly some of these guys

33:26Julien Laurens:are very competitive so let's be fair to that sticking with the time gabby uh sticking with villa gabby sorry the times report that they are going to be hit with a heavy fine for breaching ufa financial rules for the second straight year yeah this is a different set of financial rules

33:41Gab Marcotti:there's one set which controls how much you can spend over a certain time period there's another one which is the squad cost ratio rule which originally you couldn't spend more than 80 percent a season on amortized transfer fees and wages and payments to agents more than 80 percent of your total revenue that's down gone down to 70 percent and they've breached that so the good news is it's a kind of a separate type of infraction so they will likely get a big penalty it does not blow up their financial settlement. That part is still to be determined. And a reminder that if they breach their financial settlement, they're out of Europe.

34:22Gab Marcotti:Yeah, they can't. They can't go back in. And they face an even heavier fight. Jules, I got to go there, even though it's painful. Back on Friday. Paris Saint-Germain falling away to Rennes. 3-1. They're no longer top of the league. We get to see Zabarni and Manbun on the pitch at the same time, which I thought we would never see. It's not good.

34:42Julien Laurens:It was not good. But although the performance itself, they expected to go to 3.4 or something, they had nine big chances in this game and yet just could not convert anything and Rennes were very good with that coach by the way because they've got an interim coach on the bench after Abid-Bay leaving the club. Abid-Bay was sacked. It was not a good night at all for Dembele or for Desiree Dwey. Dembele after the game having a go without naming who by saying like, you know, players think about themselves more than the team and that's no good you have to think about the team and put the fit the team first people assume he was talking about desire edway who obviously was back at hand like dembele uh and maybe it was a bit too selfish in what he did on the pitch but yeah no good result and they'll have to bounce back very quickly because monaco is on tuesday night so tomorrow in the champions league playoff first leg one of an increasing number of french

35:34Gab Marcotti:teams that have uh beaten paris saint germain already and they won against not at the weekend

35:38Julien Laurens:so they're in better form, I guess. Bayern rolled to a 3-0 win away of at the Bremen and as Hurricane scores two goals, Gabi now has 500 goals in his career for club and country.

35:49Gab Marcotti:Yeah, and as you know, I think this is a totally frugasy stat that was invented for the benefit of Cristiano Ronaldo as more for club and country than anybody. But guess what? It's still a thing and he's a phenomenal goal scorer. It's still impressive. Most impressive thing he did in this game was the pass, in my view, was the pass for Luis Diaz, which Diaz then squandered. Just a reminder, He is a phenomenal centre forward. Sticking with Bayern, Dayo Upamecano has re-upped through 2030. Jules?

36:15Julien Laurens:Yeah, I think this is a big deal for Bayern because at some point they thought he would leave as a free agent because he was out of contract and there were a few big clubs in England and the rest of Europe. After him, they had to pay massively. A lot of money. Loads of money, not just in wages because he's going to earn 20 million a year gross, which is one of the highest in the team. Mo Salah type money. But also in signing on FI, so well done to Dayo for getting what he wanted. He's very happy to stay. Vincent Kompany is very happy for him to stay as well. I think he's taking his game to another level under Vini.

36:50Julien Laurens:So this is really good, but it comes at an expense, of course. Napoli and Roma battle to a 2-2 draw on Sunday night as newcomer Alisson Santos grabs a late equaliser for Antonio Conte.

37:00Gab Marcotti:Yeah, as you know, Napoli running on fumes, everybody injured, and even the indestructible Scott McTominay out. Roma twice take the lead for Daniel Marlin.

37:10Julien Laurens:What's going on? It turned into like Brazilian Ronaldo, Daniel Marlin, since he moved to Rome. It's the food, maybe.

37:15Gab Marcotti:And Ryan Zaragoza looks like a little messy. But they get the late equalizer with Alisson Santos, which I thought was big. He just arrived. 72 hours after destroying Barcelona, Diego Simeone makes nine changes and Atletico Madrid fall away to Rayo Vallecano. Three nil. Jules, please explain.

37:32Julien Laurens:Yeah, so inconsistent. Again, how can you beat Barca 4-0 and it could have been 6 or 7 and then lose like that. And this could, by the way, have been 4 or 5 for Ryo too.

37:40Gab Marcotti:And by the way, 9 changes, but at the same time, you keep talking about how deep the squad is and those are good players coming in.

37:46Julien Laurens:Mendoza is a really good, nice young player. He's not ready for a game like that, especially when you don't partner him with a more experienced player. Him and Johnny, we like them, but it was not good enough. It was a disaster. I think from Simone, but from the team and Oblak was really cross after the game and rightly so as an experienced player there. This was back on Friday, Gabi, but Chelsea beat Hull City 4-0 in the FA Cup as Pedro Neto gets a hat-trick. Is he winning you over?

38:10Gab Marcotti:It's funny because Pedro Neto does not fit Chelsea's business model at all, right? He's the oldest, other than Jean-Felic, he's the oldest permanent transfer that, and Tosin was a free agent. He's the oldest guy they brought in, 50 million, sounded like a lot of money. But guess what? The guy always gives you something. He covers both flanks. He plays a ton of minutes despite not being, you know, a projected starter. Well done, Pedro Neto. Also on Friday, Seru Gerasi bats two goals and Borussia Dortmund demolished Mainz 4-0. Joel, they ain't giving up. No, it's still coming up.

38:43Julien Laurens:Yeah, still six points and the Classical is coming up, but it was the perfect way to prepare for the Champions League playoff, which obviously is important to them. Gerasi, five goals in his last three games. Now he's back to that kind of form after a bit of tension with Niko Kovac and maybe not being as good on the pitch. So this should be good for them on Tuesday night. I'm going to come out and say it.

39:03Gab Marcotti:Head-to-head coming up, both in Serie A as a Milan derby and in the Bundesliga. And in France.

39:09Julien Laurens:Lens-PSG is coming up, I think, next month. Okay. But in Spain, when is the Classico? It's a bit later, isn't it, I think?

39:19Gab Marcotti:Yeah, well, it's really funny. These races could be tighter than we thought. It could be fun.

39:24Julien Laurens:And the City Arsenal game, obviously.

39:25Gab Marcotti:I was going to ask, who is more likely to screw it up? Bayern or Inter? Or neither? Neither.

39:32Julien Laurens:I think for me those two are set.

39:34Gab Marcotti:Lanz or Real Madrid?

39:37Julien Laurens:I think Lanz don't play in Europe. It's the only one of all those teams. Milan don't play in Europe as well, but in the other position. I think it'd be great. I think it'd be amazing. And talking about Milan, Gabi, they stay second in Serie A thanks to a late Luka Modric goal. That gives them a 2-1 win over Pisa on Friday night, I think it was. Everything looks a little laboured under Max Allegri, which is true, even in this game. and they can't hang on to a lead, but they're still getting results.

40:03Gab Marcotti:Yeah, they're still getting the results one way or another, despite getting very little production from the strikers.

40:08Julien Laurens:And no Leao, and no Pulisic, and Fulcrum missed a penalty, like a terrible penalty as well.

40:13Gab Marcotti:It was so horrible. But bro, you signed this guy. Yeah, yeah. I don't, you know, at some point, like Adrian Rabiot as well, why are you getting sent off in injury time? I know. Why? Why? For what, for yakking too much?

40:28Julien Laurens:Yeah.

40:28Gab Marcotti:I mean, his mom should go and have a word with him. I don't know how they're doing it. It's a big loss, though. What? That's a big loss Rabiot sent off. It's a big loss also because Allegri's turned it into a big loss because he's not developing the other players. He's like, oh, let me go with Rabiot. He's my guy. Let me go with Modric. He's my other guy. Modric at the end, skipping his way. Lovely goal, though. Lovely goal. Lovely player. But this isn't good. I don't... They're not building anything. They're not... Whatever. But they're in there. And look, nobody's going to care if they win the title.

40:59Gab Marcotti:Yeah, absolutely. Madness in Marseille, Jules. Oh, a change. Two goals up against Strasbourg. And they give up a stupid injury time penalty for the equalizer. By the way, a minute after Igor Pachal could easily put the game away and he squanders the chance on the counter.

41:16Julien Laurens:Yeah, it's not the first time that this kind of late fragility happens. And he probably won't be the last. They're just not in good shape. They obviously don't have a manager because Roberto De Zerbi left. And then this weekend, Mehdi Benatia, the sporting director, who was very, very tied with, very close to De Zerbi and to Pablo Longoria, the president, decided to leave. I'm not sure where this leaves the club right now. And they search for a new permanent manager or interim manager even because the guy who was on the bench for this draw against Trasbourg. Pablo Donato, no? Yeah, Pancho is, I mean, an amazing servant to Marseille.

41:54Julien Laurens:Marseille through and through born and bred but I don't think he can stay until the end of the season with what is at stake for Marseille which is the top three and Champions League because without that money they'd be in trouble they invested for the ZA and they need the Champions League money absolutely Frank Marco was at the game the atmosphere was so toxic the ultras didn't show up for the first 15 minutes but they had banners everywhere asking Mako and Longoria to leave in far worse terms than just, please, can you leave our club? It's just not good at all right now.

42:29Gab Marcotti:So this thing, right? We see it happen time and again. Foreign owner, especially American owner, comes in. It's hard not to be seduced by Marseille. It's a little gritty compared to the more genteel parts of the south of France. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. But you got phenomenal stadium, phenomenal fan base. The problem is you need to be present and you need to at least be able to have that dialogue and have that accountability and it's really difficult to do and personally, maybe it's because I like maybe Benassia, I've met him a couple times, he often goes on Italian television, he's very good. I thought he could have the dialogue with his support, but was he just...

43:10Julien Laurens:No, he had, he had. I think he left because he was exhausted by everything, the environment, the crisis, the results, everything. Where I feel a bit for Frank Michael, who I don't know, by the way, I've got no issue here. The guy spent 700 million euros of his own money for nothing so far. He hasn't won a trophy yet. There was a couple of seasons in Champions League since he took over the club. I'm not sure why as a Marseille fan you go after him, because the only thing you could maybe look into is him appointing the wrong people. So you go after Longoria if you want to go after Benatia. Because if you also look, I love Mehdi, and Médie is, I know he was at the Marseille Academy, but Médie is Paris-Borne-Bred too.

43:51Julien Laurens:Some of the recruitment from Benatia and Longoria, and I know they change half of the squad every six months, which is difficult for a manager and probably for a fan base too, but a lot of their signings have been poor and left after six months. Like even recently, O 'Reilly went back to Brighton, Angel Gomez who went to Wolves. Six months ago, there were big signings for Marseille at the time, and Benazia and Longoria and Dezebi were super happy of getting them. But this is a club that has always been run on chaos and crisis and that's never going to change. This is the DNA of this football club, of this fan base, of the area, of the passion that they have for football and the intensity that they have for football.

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45:45Julien Laurens:They're the ones with the bear on the box. And back to Chelsea, Gabby. Hurl announced that some fans were arrested for singing homophobic songs about Liam Rossini's side.

45:55Gab Marcotti:Yeah, so they use this term, Chelsea Rent Boys, which a lot of opposing fans use against Chelsea. comes with the fact that those who don't know, a rent boy is a male prostitute who generally has clients who are men.

46:16Gab Marcotti:I go to Chelsea a lot. I hear this a lot. In this case, whole city arrested people for it. I just want consistency. What is allowed, you know, to some degree. I'm not 100%. Now, it's obviously intended in a disparaging way, but the fact that it's disparaging, I don't know. I think there has to be a lot of clarity about what is allowed and what is not allowed. Because people will say, well, we've been seeing this for 20 years whenever we go to Stamford Bridge. Yeah. And I think you have to have consistency. And maybe this is it. Maybe this is not something that's acceptable because if you happen to be a male prostitute, then you'll be offended.

47:02Gab Marcotti:I don't know, but the weird thing to me is given that the majority of people who hear this, whether they be straight or gay, are not prostitutes, I kind of wonder who is being offended there. Do you see what I'm saying? Let's have the rules, but just I don't know, let's have them in place. Can't believe we've waited for this long to celebrate the League on Leaders, Jules. Lens destroyed Paris FC and pull ahead of Paris Saint-Germain

47:34Julien Laurens:yeah yeah we said PSG lost on Friday and Lens were never going to waste the opportunity to go back one point clay off PSG at the top they destroyed Paris FC 5-0 even with the new signing that they made like Ciro Immobile and the others in the January transfer window was just never going to be good enough to be this I have to say this was a wonderful performance from Wesley Saeed and Pierre Saeed's team really really good I don't know who will stop them and they will be as we said earlier a loss PSG game at the Stade Bollard in the north of France in the next few weeks and that's maybe where this title will be decided but this

48:13Gab Marcotti:last team is very very good right now what I like about this is you have this mix of you know some kids who are local and from the Academy like the guy Fofana who came on yeah a bit clunky but puts himself for bad Very good. Paris Berlin brand, obviously. Okay, but he had to move to Launce to get a game. No, he was to the academy. You know, he chose to go there. But then you have all these other guys who were at bigger clubs, were on bigger stages from Tovan to Alain Saint-Maximin back after Saudi and Mexico to Haidara. All these guys now, to Selleck even, who are now back and they're showing, you know what?

48:53Gab Marcotti:I got something left to give. Yeah. And I think that's a wonderful thing and they're really making a difference. Well done, Joseph.

49:02Julien Laurens:Nottingham Forest are in danger of relegation, Gab. Do you agree then with Mr. Marinakis' decision to ditch Sean Dyche for Vito Pereira? Of course I agree with Mr. Marinakis. Yes. You don't want any trouble. No, look. Fourth permanent manager. That never happened in Premier League history. No, but it's happened.

49:21Gab Marcotti:Yeah. It happened at Watford a few years ago, But that was a bit frugasy because people love to do it to make fun of the Watford owners and stuff. But that was a bit different because if you remember, one of them, Oscar Garcia, got very sick. Yes. And couldn't continue. He was not sacked, yeah. Yeah, he was not sacked. He had to step aside. And then Billy McKinley came in for two games. He was an interim boss. But look, four managers, whatever. Aren't you original? But these guys are legit. Four different dudes. Yeah. And that's pretty remarkable. Vito Pereira, I think he's very good. and I thought he did a really good job at Wolves when he was there before.

49:58Gab Marcotti:He's got a different style than Sean Dyche. To me, the biggest concern here is the four guys you've had this season, they're also different one from the other. And Vito Pereira, again, is different from the three guys before him. And it's like if you bring in all these different styles and it's all the same players, it's not going to be easy to get different results. No, I guess. You know what? It's so tight between them and West Ham for that third spot, third relegation spot that why not take a chance yeah yeah I agree Cristiano Ronaldo scores his first goal as a 41 year old Jules Al Nasser beat Al Fateh 2-0 on the road and he's up to 962 goals for club and country

50:38Julien Laurens:and he was obviously very fresh because he went on strike for the last two league games

50:42Gab Marcotti:was it a strike or was it an extended birthday celebration it was a strike

50:46Julien Laurens:he was not happy obviously about what was going on with PIF blah blah blah we're not going to go back on this we talked about it a lot enough but I guess we were you know watching this game and see him coming coming back to the team straight in obviously as a starter there's no way George Edius would say hang on you know you missed the last two games I'm going to push on and not with Cristiano he scored Al-Fatia not very good this is a very good win for them they're still very much in the title race with Al-Hilal so let's see where this is going. UFR president Alexander Seferin changed the rules so he would be allowed to run for a third term only to then announce he was not going to do so.

51:25Julien Laurens:Or is he? Gab, is he going to change his mind maybe?

51:28Gab Marcotti:So this is weird. So if you remember, around, this was after Gianni Infantino got basically lambasted for changing the, or not changing, changing the interpretation of the FIFA statute saying that, okay, because they say you can only have two full terms, right? and he said and johnny said oh no but my first one was in a full term so actually i can now go and run for another term yeah chefrin did the same thing which would allow him to run for another term uh and a lot of people said wait a minute like you're criticizing you know you're you're the anti johnny this is kind of hypocritical yeah of you and then he said and he got very angry at a press conference really angry and he's saying ah all you guys accusing me of being like that guy I'm paraphrasing here, Jeff.

52:17Gab Marcotti:Look, I'm not. In fact, I'm not going to run. I just think that you should be allowed to, but I'm not going to personally run for another term. And now he gives an interview to a Slovenian newspaper where he says, well, of course, first I'm going to talk to my colleagues from the national associations. We'll see. But a lot of people are interested in this.

52:35Julien Laurens:Everybody wants me to stay, so what can I do?

52:37Gab Marcotti:I have to say, out of the 55 member associations, at least 50 of them have come to me and said they want me to run again. Of course. But I haven't made my decision yet. This is reminiscent of, you know, when like some people who may or may not be the U.S. president say that I will bring down drug prices by 300, 400 percent, which is mathematically impossible. Yeah. Do you believe 50 different federations endorses? Mr. President, please run it. I'll tell you what. No, no, listen. I look. If the rules allow him to run again, if people wanted to run and win. He would. We know he would run again. I don't have a problem with it.

53:14Gab Marcotti:He would. If what he's saying is true, that people are such suck-ups and toadies that, you know, the loser head of the Andorran or Moldovan or whatever, probably Italy actually, going up and says, Oh, please, please, Jeffren, please run again. Please, please, we need you. Maybe they're happy with his work. Maybe they are, but you don't need to go and go and be such a suck-up, be such a vassal, be such a toady. Let his work speak for himself. if you genuinely believe that's fine then just say if he if he asks say yes i'll probably vote for you if you run again that's all you got to do yeah or i might not or whatever right but but to come out and and again if what he's saying is true that people are begging him yeah to run again you know what this reminds me of this reminds me of do you remember when they had the raid on fifa at the borough lock yeah and step blatter was going to step down and then afterwards he says no i'm not going to step down and then of course later was forced to i remember me at the fifa congress and there was again some other toady sucker bootlicker i didn't want to i don't remember the country was from but it was a marginal country let's say saying like how can the department of justice take away our president you are our president we love you mr president you cannot come and kidnap our president i'm like are you serious this is how you deal with each other in politics you have respect and have a professional relationship yeah um and whatever um i i don't i actually i do not believe he's going to run again in the end i genuinely do not believe that but who knows yeah no yeah so clearly we thought league on tv had acquired the

54:57Julien Laurens:right to the world cup jewels but apparently not yeah the right for we have the rights settled for terrestrial TV free to wear TV but for you know subscription TV if you want there was no nobody has taken the rights yet it's usually Binsport in France we've had them since the 2010 World Cup I think but at the time where Ligue 1 Plus so the Ligue 1 channel thought maybe there's an opportunity for us because Binsport I not have not got the deals yet so they contacted FIFA we said yeah why not? How much are you offering? 18 plus 2 million. So 20 in total. FIFA thought, okay, that's better than zero, I guess.

55:38Julien Laurens:And Ligue 1 thought, okay, great. We have that to show our subscribers through the summer, maybe get more subscribers who might stay then next season when Ligue 1 comes back. I can understand the idea there from Nicolas de Taverno and all of that. And FIFA sent, they agreed a contract.

55:52Gab Marcotti:FIFA sent them a contract. They actually signed it.

55:55Julien Laurens:sent it back to FIFA, who never signed it because obviously they poked the bear and Beansport said, hang on a minute, we cannot not have the World Cup. So then Beansport went on, made a better offer to FIFA than what Ligue 1 were offering, not just for this 2026 World Cup, but also for the next one, the 2030 World Cup, and back the rights basically. So Ligue 1 were not happy.

56:17Gab Marcotti:And this guy, the head of the Ligue 1.

56:19Julien Laurens:Yeah, but Taverno said basically because… He resigned. Yeah, he resigned. He wasn't supported. He said 17 clubs out of the 18 clubs were happy for us to get the World Cup right. The one not happy was obviously PhD because, you know, the head of the club is obviously the same as the head of being sport.

56:38Gab Marcotti:And is the head of the European football clubs as well. And sits on the UEFA executive board too. Yeah, exactly.

56:47Julien Laurens:So there was no way Liga would win this battle against Nasser Al-Khalaf.

56:49Gab Marcotti:And is a very good tennis player too. Nasser Al-Khalaf wears many hats.

56:53Julien Laurens:And paddle player now as well. Yeah, very good. The EFL board has voted to expand the promotion playoff to the Premier League. Do you like this? And what is it?

57:03Gab Marcotti:Okay, so basically right now what happens is in the championship, because they're going to start this initially in the championship, if it gets approved, the final vote is on March 5th. They go out, there's 24 teams, they play a total of 46 games. The top two get automatically promoted. We see the case now. Yes. And then the team's between third and sixth. Third plays against sixth, home and away. Fourth plays against fifth, home and away. And then they have a big playoff final in Wednesday. And everybody trots out the same stupid cliche. Oh, look, it's the richest game in world football. Aren't I clever, right?

57:38Gab Marcotti:Okay. Now they want to change this. They said, no, let's make the top eight qualify for the playoffs. And so the way it would work, it would be, you would have kind of like a play-in round. it would be eight against fifth, seventh against sixth, and then the two teams advancing would play against the fourth-place team and the third-place team, and you would have a playoff final. The reasons behind this are obvious. They're doing this so that all those teams stocking mid-table who are too good to go down but too bad to qualify for the playoffs, they generate interest late in the season. Hey, guys, that's what happens.

58:15Gab Marcotti:If you have a team with 24 teams in it, right, you're going to have a bunch of guys playing for nothing. Completely. Logic would suggest, do you need 24 teams in the championship? That would be the easiest way to generate more interest and solve this. But, of course, they don't like doing that.

58:31Julien Laurens:I don't know. I don't see why you need the extra two, seven, and eight plays in the playoffs.

58:38Gab Marcotti:There's another factor, too. What if you're, like, four at the table, and with, like, six games to go, you've got no chance of finishing top two yeah but equally you're pretty much assured that you're finishing in the top eight yeah so what's to stop you then from tanking i guess it's better if you

58:57Julien Laurens:finish fourth because you're going to play the team in eighth then if you finish seventh and going to play the team in fifth well no if you finish fourth you're going to play the winner of the fifth yeah but you see what i mean maybe but as we saw before i think when hundreds went went up to the Premier League. They were six in the table, went to the playoff and won the playoff to go up and be the third team to go up. So I don't know. I don't think you need... Because also the problem is the team that finish eight might not be good enough to win the Premier League, but somehow they make their way through those playoffs and win it and go to the Premier League where they get spanked every single game in the Premier League and go down like that.

59:36Julien Laurens:That's why the Premier League is against it. Exactly.

59:39Gab Marcotti:The other factor too, if you're the team that's third and fourth, then you've got to wait around for these other games to be played. And again, that's not good. You need competitive football to stay sharp and whatever. But the argument is there's so many North American owners. They like the playoffs. They like the excitement. Like I said, you want to bring more excitement, reduce the number of teams. But, of course, you're not going to do that because you want your 23 home games every year to make your money. So I don't know. my sense is that this is going to pass ding dong the Super League is dead Real Madrid, the last remaining club in the project have reached a deal with UEFA they've abandoned it entirely, they're dropping their legal action as well so much for the judgement from the European Court of Justice, blah blah blah you surprised yours?

1:00:29Julien Laurens:No, no I mean it took them a long time, still what 5 or 6 years or something after it all kicked off a lot of lawyers have been probably very happy with the money that they made through this whole process but this is the right thing to do right yeah yeah but well it's a battle they can no longer win yeah you could if you want to be really cynical cynical the fact

1:00:51Gab Marcotti:that you have the um now obviously the european football clubs group um formerly the eca run by our pal nasser that's it yeah they now have a major say the clubs have a bigger say in the Champions League and how things are run than ever before. I think the direction of travel was the Cubs are going to get more and more control. So in some ways, Real Madrid can say it is a Super League. Equally, I think it's pretty humiliating. All those assurances. Remember, he's like, oh, the Super League will start in October or like whatever. All this nonsense.

1:01:25Julien Laurens:Like A22 nonsense, yeah.

1:01:26Gab Marcotti:And I wonder, all those A22 guys burned Riker? What's he going to do now? Like, yeah, I don't know. It was really, really ugly. A lot of stupid people saw stupid things. And I'm not going to call anybody out, but you know I'm talking about you. A lot of people who should know better went along with it just for convenience.

1:01:46Julien Laurens:Jim Ratcliffe has apologized for comments he made to Sky News last week in which he said that Britain had been colonized by immigrants, gab even Manchester United. So his own club issued a statement distancing themselves from him.

1:01:57Gab Marcotti:Okay, so obviously Jim Ratcliffe is entitled to his views, whatever they may be. I'll tell you what he's not entitled to. He's not entitled to using his pulpit to disseminate false information, like when he says that the UK population went from 58 million to 70 million in five years. I don't know if he saw that on reformed TikTok or something, but it's not true. It went from 58 million to 65 million in 20 years, which is much more gradual. When you come out and you say there's 9 million people on benefits, in other words, on welfare in the UK who don't want to work, bro that includes the disabled that includes retired people that includes a whole bunch of people it's not just a bunch of lazy people sitting in their basements and then there's the issue of immigrants you make Manchester United look bad which is why I'm happy Manchester United issued a statement distancing themselves if there's a silver lining is guys this guy does not own your club the Blazers do not that the Blazers are much better with PR But at least the Glazers avoid seeing stupid, embarrassing things while representing your club.

1:03:09Gab Marcotti:And I think that's the thing to bear in mind. Jules, this brings us to our end. We will be taking a much-needed show off next Thursday. But don't worry, guys. We're going to be back the following Monday. Until then, love the game. Love your neighbor. Love yourself.

1:03:42Julien Laurens:From 30 for 30 podcasts.

1:03:51Julien Laurens:Brian Pata, senior defensive lineman from Miami. Gunned down.

1:03:56Gab Marcotti:The key to this case, it's Brian. Boy, he's ripping. An hour before he died, he was on the phone arguing with somebody. This might be a hit. You want the truth. They just want a conviction being placed under arrest. We had a killer amongst us. Murder at the U. Listen now.