Gab & Juls Show: Does Christian Chivu deserve more credit at Inter?

16:10Julien Laurens:yesterday was bad again, man.

16:11Gab Marcotti:The point, the guy was getting booed for reasons we know every time he touched the ball. But I think Inter's squad can just to me looks more complete going forward right now yeah um but yeah uh it's going to be a big summer for uh for both of these and i'm i think i'm slightly more i'm slightly more bullish

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17:55Gab Marcotti:From professional-grade products you can count on to fast, dependable delivery, they're there to help you keep things running smoothly. Plus, their technical product specialists are here to help answer your toughest questions. And because Grainger knows safety is always a priority, They're committed to being your partner and protecting both your people and your facilities. Call 1-800-GRANGER, click Grainger.com, or just stop by. All right, enough to add me. How about some quick hits instead? Let's go, guys. The quadruple is on, Jules. Pep Guardiola makes 10 changes, and Manchester City rolled to a 3-1 win in Newcastle.

18:31Gab Marcotti:Also, what do you make of the fact that Pep will now have to face a two-match span? He thought it was a big joke.

18:38Julien Laurens:Yeah, I mean, I was there. I was sat right behind his bench anyway. So I had the Pep Guardiola show. Why didn't you help him with his coat? Oh, he didn't need any help, trust me. He took it the way he took it. He was so angry. And then his face, I thought, was confronting the fourth referee after he got his yellow card, which I videoed from my seat and went quite viral on social media because I think his face looked threatening. Pep's face looked threatening, certainly. what i find fascinating about this too much ban that's his six yellow card right so you get again a match ban for every like slot of three games so that's two except that in the rules if amongst the two next game that you are banned for there's one cup final either the league final or the FA cup final you're not banned for that game so if a player gets sent off and gets a three match ban and he misses the final but yet a manager has to be i don't know if it's because he has to lead the team, you know, how they do in England and then shake the hands of the King, the Queen, the Prince, the Prime Minister, whoever.

19:45Julien Laurens:I don't know why, but I find that a little bit good for him. He'd be on the bench for that game at Wembley against Arsenal in the League Cup final. I thought City were outstanding even with a B team bar the first 15 minutes when they conceded. After that, I thought it was some of the best football I've seen them play this season. I was really, really impressed.

20:01Gab Marcotti:Maybe these guys should play instead of the other guys.

20:03Julien Laurens:I have to say, you know, it was really, and Newcastle are a really good team, but they're fatigued now.

20:09Gab Marcotti:Howe said they were tired, and he said, we also were holding something back for the Barcelona game in the Champions League. Yeah, sure, absolutely. But you said they should focus on winning the FA Cup because they can win the FA Cup. Yeah, yeah, yeah, completely, yeah. Again, I go back to maybe they should have rested players in earlier games.

20:27Julien Laurens:Yeah, yeah, maybe as well, yeah. Yes, certainly, but it looked like it was the strongest Newcastle team pretty much available. Okay, Bargarden, where Pep made all those changes. And clearly the priority for ADR Newcastle was that game in the FA Cup, not really the Champions League. Otherwise, he would have done like Pep. For Guardiola, clearly the Real Madrid game was more important than this one, but they still won it. And the crowd report is also on guard, because Mansfield did give Arsenal a really tough time on Saturday before falling 2-1. I'm going to guess you're not going to approve of Mikel Arteta's lineup choices?

21:00Julien Laurens:No, I'm not.

21:02Gab Marcotti:I mean, look, I just don't know that you need to give yourself such fine margins, right? He started two 16-year-olds. Max Dowman, who we've seen before, he's very, very good. He's also 16, paying on a League One pitch. Probably not as nice as the pitches he plays on regularly. The other kid, Salmon, again, highly rated youngster, obviously made a mistake for the goal. I don't know that you want to say put guys in that position and also but more than that it's the message you send to the other team to the rest of the team hey guys I want you guys to all have a game a run out but to shoehorn you in I have to change my formation to a back three and I think he realized that because minute 38 he made the change Pierre and Capia coming on so at least it looks something like the first team so you're not sending a message hey you guys are scrubs I don't think it's the message Arteta wanted to send and the other factor is what if this goes wrong What if something goes wrong?

21:52Gab Marcotti:You know how they're so precious in this card. You know right now Arteta's getting so much hate because of the set pieces, the defensiveness, dull, boring, blah, blah, blah, right? If on top of that you disrespect the FA Cup, it can derail everything else. So you're playing Bayer Leverkusen here. You're not playing Pele and the guys from Escape to Victory midweek. Play something more resembling a real team. Again, with the benefit of hindsight, that's how I see it. More FA Cup. Port Vale, dead last in League One, beat Sunderland, who field pretty close to a best 11. Green Granite Shaka was on the bench.

22:30Duos, weirdly, Port Vale have won more cup games

22:33Gab Marcotti:than league games this season.

22:35Julien Laurens:Yeah, the only game they lost in one of the two cups, the League Cup and the FA Cup, was against Arsenal in the League Cup when they were beaten at home. But yeah, they've been outstanding. They're much better since John Bowie, the new Australian manager arrived in January. They're still a million points back. Yeah, but they're 11 points behind. They've got three games in hand. So obviously they're still not out of it completely to go down and they have momentum and this would be massive because it's not just that they won and they play the football that you expect a league one team like them to play anyway on a terrible pitch.

23:08Julien Laurens:It's just that they fought really hard and they didn't actually give much away to Sunderland who were quite poor, I had a couple of good chances, so I need to come back into the game. But yeah, it was one of those kind of afternoons in the FA Cup. Plenty of rotation in La Liga 2 as Atletico Madrid beat Real Sociedad 3-2 in a preview of the Copa del Real final coming up soon. And Nico Gonzalez backs two goals.

23:32Gab Marcotti:Yeah, I thought this was really important for Atletico Madrid. Of course, both these teams playing in the Copa del Real midweek, both tired. I think it did affect the game. Atletico taking the lead and then conceding. Take the lead and then conceding. And Nico Gonzalez eventually getting those two goals. Lovely back hill assist from your boy, Anton Griezmann. And I also thought this was really important. They have a stretch, which I think is as brutal as any stretch can be, because they play Real Madrid in the last game before the international break. Then they come back, and then I think it's – then they have Barcelona.

24:07Gab Marcotti:They advance in the Champions League. Then they play Barcelona twice again, and then they have the Copa del Rey. so he needs he needs everybody all hands on deck for El Cholo Barcelona stay four points clear of Real Madrid as Pedri and Laminia Mal combined for an absolute stunner of a goal away to Atlético Bilbao

24:26Julien Laurens:yeah great finish like one of those curlers that you are used to now from Laminia Mal in a game that was not pretty some rotation made by Nancy Flick like you saw Marcus Rashford for example or Ferran Torres and people like that and it didn't really work. They looked super tight, which again, is normal. They play midweek in that Copa de Red. I did a little bit bow. Yeah, this bit bow too. So, both teams not great. In the end, you just win it. You were under pressure because Ramirez won before and if you're Lamin and you put a lot of stats there, Gabi, on our script. I will help you out with this, Jules,

24:59Gab Marcotti:since it's now a thing apparently to combine club goals and goals for your country. He has scored 44 goals for Barcelona, six goals for Spain, which means that's 50 goals. yeah and spanish media who love comparing lamin of course to other footballers they point out that lamin is 18 years and 237 days old by the time leonel messi hit 50 he was 20 years and 315 days so more than two years older by the time cristiano did it he was 21 years and 297 days so more than three years older yeah i don't like these comparisons he's forcing us to compare yeah

25:36Julien Laurens:I know, but he's still pretty amazing. Juventus destroyed Pisa, Fournil this weekend. Gav, they're stuck over. New deal for Gianni Spalletti even.

25:43Gab Marcotti:Yeah, I thought Juve played really well. Canan Yildiz sort of playing wide at first and moving to the center forward role. Is it better than anyone? It's funny. When you've got somebody who's better than everybody else, he's better than everybody else at multiple positions. In any positions, exactly. This new deal for Spalletti, I see no reason for this whatsoever. Too early, you mean? It's way too early. You have a deal. He gets an automatic renewal. if he gets him into the top four, right? Just leave it at that. You don't know what's going to happen. There's a reason you didn't give him a longer deal before.

26:13Gab Marcotti:You made the right choice with making that conditional. He's done a phenomenal job. I'm not doubting that, mostly. But just wait. I think we can imagine who's putting this word out.

26:23Julien Laurens:Yeah.

26:23Gab Marcotti:And I don't like it. More Magic of the Cup. Wrexham nearly produced some unbelievable content for their show. Twice taking the lead against Chelsea Jewels. Liam Ross Sr. says his team were, quote, a bit lucky, were they?

26:38Julien Laurens:Yeah, well, they were and they were not really yet. Twice they went behind, which is obviously not good when you look at the goals they considered as well. It's pretty poor defending from a very changed Chelsea team. Back three again. Back three makes no sense against a team like this. I'm sorry.

26:55Gab Marcotti:Besides the Arsenal principle, but it makes sense

26:57Julien Laurens:if I want to shoehorn as many people into the team. Didn't work, changed things. in the end they had to go through extra time and VAR although it was the right call came to the rescue as well not to go to 3-3 when they were 3-2 up but I guess you move on it's another competition they're still in which I think is good for Liam and for the players some got some rest which is also needed before they go to Paris on Wednesday for the Champions League against PSG so in the end yeah you got a bit of a scare and it was a great afternoon if you're Rexham if you're if you're in neutral as well like black lively and and ryan reynolds all the big big names big stars were there good for them uh and for chelsea you move on very quickly i think but the commentator

27:37Gab Marcotti:on my feed whoever's talking beginning kept referring to him as robert mcelhenney i don't think he has any idea who the guy is yeah exactly let's rewind all the way to friday gab a late

27:47Julien Laurens:fede valverde goal gives real madrid a 2-1 win against celta vigo are things beginning to turn

27:52Gab Marcotti:not based on the performance you have the mitigating circumstance that yes you had a million players out um we saw tiago pitak start again in midfield um we brought a bunch of kids out the back again this game could have gone either way iago aspas came off the bench hit the woodwork vini early on really really well would have scored a bit of great goal but you drop gonzalo garcia you're asking vini essentially to do everything on his own yeah which have you ever trained this have you ever practiced this why are you doing this what what's what's the thinking here uh trent got done at right back for the goal sorry to say and again it's Saint-Thibault of Courtois but it's three points Jules I gotta go there also on Friday Paris Saint-Germain soiled the bed at the Parc de France against Monaco losing 3-1 this was pretty much Paris Saint-Germain at full strength other than Fabien Ruiz and John Neves and Marquinhos and Dembele so that's four starters Dembele came off the bench and Marquinhos

28:51Julien Laurens:and Donnarumma

28:53Gab Marcotti:who now plays for another club because he wouldn't get a contract unfortunately yeah now but I'm assuming you must happy that you do not have to see Monaco again

28:59Julien Laurens:this season yeah absolutely it was a tough watch because Monaco were very good outstanding exploiting the mistakes by PSG the first goal I mean we love Warenza Eremri who's a great young player that was his 34 starts in a row which is probably too much and his head seems to have exploded and the mistake that he made that caused the first goal but overall Monaco were outstanding PSG were poor They've been poor for a few weeks now, but a few glimpses there and there. Speedy scored again, but Dwey, I thought, was poor. Dwey was poor. Barcola was poor, apart from the goal, and even there, he got to be lucky.

29:36Julien Laurens:Kraskelia was poor. It was not good. Hakimi is far from the form that he showed, not even just last season, because I think we need to stop comparing with last season. They're not the same team, but even earlier in the season. So it's difficult, and I think the Chelsea tie is going to be difficult over the two games.

29:53Gab Marcotti:You say don't compare with last season. I think in some ways, somebody watching this will say, oh, but we should, because last season they were underwhelming in the first part of the season and then took it to the next level. But like you pointed out, there are serious differences between this year and the kind of underwhelming they were last season.

30:09Julien Laurens:Yeah, and last year they had turned the season already by now. It didn't happen in March. Also on a busy Friday, Bayern Munich rolled to a 4-1 win over Bolshev Moshengladbach. But Gab, let me ask you about Robert Lewandowski's comments on Harry Kane, who is obviously chasing his goal-scoring records.

30:25Gab Marcotti:Yeah, so I want to get your take too, because I kind of like this. I think Robert Lewandowski is very, you know, he doesn't say much, but when he does, it's pretty much a straight shooter. So they pointed out that Harry Kane has 30 goals. There's nine games left. And Lewandowski reached 41. And he came out and he says, yeah, but I did it in 29 games, which presumably Harry Kane will play more than that, even though he was injured, didn't play in this one. You have a problem with that? No, I don't either. I love the little needle. And in fact, I like it so much that, Robert, I'm going to help you.

30:57Gab Marcotti:Harry, you only converted eight penalties to get to your 41 goals. Harry Kane's already converted 10. I see. If you've shopped online, chances are you've bought from a business powered by Shopify. You know that purple shop pay button you see at checkout? The one that makes buying so incredibly easy? That's Shopify. And there's a reason so many businesses sell with it. because Shopify makes it incredibly easy to start and run your business. Shopify is the commerce platform behind 10 % of all e-commerce in the U.S., from household names like Mattel and Gymshark to brands just getting started. Shopify gives you a leg up with hundreds of beautiful, ready-to-go templates to express your brand style and forget about the code.

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33:03Gab Marcotti:They're the ones with the bear on the box. Liverpool are through in the FA Cup with a 3-1 win at Wolves on Friday. Andy Robertson and Mo Salah both score and Ryan Gravenberge signs a long-term deal.

33:18Julien Laurens:Yeah, I think that's the... Let's move on very quickly from the FA Cup. There was not much at all in that game.

33:22Gab Marcotti:And Salah scores two games in a row and you still got to hate on him.

33:24Julien Laurens:No, no, it's great. Two goals against Wolves. Well done for the Gravenberge deal. It's a no-brainer how good he's been in the last two years anyway. Even this season when it's a bit more difficult collectively he's very important in everything that they do so it makes a lot of sense he got a reward for doing so well i'm all for that as well and now they can focus back on the league where they obviously in that massive dog fight for champions league places they need help yeah still friday gabby napoli beat torino 2-1 but how nice is it to see not just andre francs zombo and gisa back but also kevin the brain it was super nice lukaku coming back off the bench too

34:04Gab Marcotti:soon I think he'll be ready to actually start look I there's still a ton ton of guys out from Di Lorenzo to McTominay to Rahmani and we all I we like to make fun of Conte when he says stupid things and his hair and whatever but he has a point the no team has been brutalized by injury as much as Napoli this season and been affected in the same way. And if these guys are back, we'll see how long it takes them to get into fitness. Obviously, the World Cup has got to be in the back of their minds. Just as a neutral, I want to see the real De Bruyne at the World Cup. Hopefully, we get them. But Napoli are third, and I think they're going to stay there.

34:48Gab Marcotti:I think they're going to lock up that Champions League spot. Borussia Dortmund win 2-1 at Köln, and because it's Dortmund, make life difficult for themselves, conceding late despite playing the entire second half with an extra man. But Jules, the headline, all that anyone is talking about is that after seven seasons, 300 games, 50-odd goals, Julian Brandt won't be returning next year.

35:10Julien Laurens:No, which is big, as you said. The thing about Brandt, I think there's so much talent there. I think there's a huge, I mean, not now anymore because he's 30 and it's towards the end of his career. But there was huge potential that felt was never really completely fulfilled at the Ormans or even with the national team, even more with the national team, where he's capable of some great things at times. And then in others, just go through games completely anonymous, doesn't do anything. Is it, you know, like kind of mental strength thing? Is it the fact that moments where he switched his off? Is it the lack of consistency physically?

35:48Julien Laurens:Maybe I don't know where the lack comes from. wonderful footballer no doubt but probably should have done better than

35:55Gab Marcotti:what he did with the talent that he has sliding doors moments Julian Klopp very famously Jürgen Klopp even very famously wanted Julian Brandt yeah the Liverpool's nerds persuaded him to sign that Egyptian striker Mohammed Saleh yeah and Klopp had the humility to trust the nerds over his gut instinct like I I'm really curious to see what happens he turns 30 30 years old in May he's obviously not part of Kovac's plans anymore. I looked this up. He was in the squad 20 times this season in the Bundesliga and he only started 13 games. To me, this says, I'm not building anything around you. I do think it's interesting that both they and the club, both his people in the club, kind of mutually agreed to announce this officially and put an end to speculation and say, you're not coming back at this stage of the campaign.

36:47Gab Marcotti:I thought it was a grown-up thing to do i think it's helpful it's helpful for brandt yeah do you think he's a fit in the premier league or do you think no that's got mls written all over it at 30 yeah that's

36:57Julien Laurens:slightly depressing is it i don't think so he's just turned i think forsberg went when he was not much older than 30 sorry with all due respect emil forsberg who we all love because he looks

37:08Gab Marcotti:like a little he looks like a little cartoon character i don't know i might be wrong but i

37:12Julien Laurens:I can't see where. Was he 30 really? That young? I think so, yeah. All right. I mean, yeah, maybe in the Premier League. I don't know who would take him in the Premier League. I see him more in Spain, personally. Yeah, yeah, maybe, yeah. Then he puts a dagger through the heart of the club that he loves. Ashton O 'Bieroma 2-1. And Gasparini is angry.

37:32Gab Marcotti:Yeah, this is like choice Gasparini. First he decides, you can tell he's had people advise him. Because first he comes out and says like, well, look, no, I'm happy. Of course I'm happy. I'm competing for a Champions League spot. We're still there in the Europa League. We're achieving great things this season. To be fair to him, he had a bunch of younger guys out there, Venturino, Pizzilli, which, by the way, a lot of coaches in Italy talk a good game. Gasparini's actually delivering it by promoting the kids, so respect him there. But then he goes on and on about the Balinovsky handball should have been a penalty, blah, blah, blah.

38:07Gab Marcotti:Bro, grow up. Explain to me more about how the fact that you conceded 2.75 XG while only putting together 0.35 XG. Oh, and shout out because we love our Vitinhas. Big Vitinha scored. And then reminded us why he's not as good as little Vitinha by absolutely making a hash of his chance to make it 3-1. Lens demolished Mets 3-0 and moved back within a point of Paris Saint-Germain. Choules are not dropping away.

38:35Julien Laurens:I mean, it's not that. They're the best team in the league. They've been the best team in the league the whole season. So they are where they should be and probably a few points off where they should actually be. Just a point behind, as you said, Gabi there. Still in the French Cup too, where they've qualified for the semifinals and have a big chance of potentially doing the double.

38:54Gab Marcotti:Who's left in the French Cup?

38:55Julien Laurens:Strasbourg? Strasbourg, Lens, Toulouse, and a fourth one. I can't remember now. Well, Toulouse knocking out. Olympique Marseille, as I recall. Yeah, that's right, yeah. So, no, they have a big chance. I mean, I love the way they played. They were outstanding against a Mets team that is pretty much relegated already, but still, despite the injuries, some of the young players that they have, they were outstanding after playing in midweek as well.

39:25Gab Marcotti:I think it is read that should Paris Saint-Germain not advance past Chelsea, they're going to unleash their fury on Ligue 1 and go ahead and win every game and just destroy everybody. but I don't think we should take that for granted should we?

39:38Julien Laurens:Oh no no definitely not PSG no no no that's not going to be the case there's obviously a last PSG again coming up which could be the title decider but Lens are looking really really strong now so you know good for them Luca Dacuña not Paris born and bred he's from Brittany but still French guess the winner has Como 2-1 and a half fourth in the table more love for Cesc Fabregas yeah they just keep cruising this was a really tough game

40:03Gab Marcotti:And Cagliari, especially at home, are a lot better than people think they are. They have, I think, one of the best wide players in Serie A, if not the big five, best young ones anyway in Palestra, who create a lot of problems for them. But again, they're so confident. They're so different from many others. I don't know if he could have done this in, say, in Spain. Because in Spain, they're like, ha-ha, you want to keep the ball and play with it? Go for it. We're used to it because we could all do it, right? In Italy, it's not so much a thing. So I don't know if it's a contrast that's helped him, but he's kept everybody so calm.

40:38Gab Marcotti:They kept going. I'm just curious to see what UEFA do if they do qualify for Europe. Not just Sunderland, Fulham also lose to lower league opposition. They fall 1-0 at home to Southampton as Marco Silva rotates the heck out of his squad and leaves out a bunch of starters. Jules, help me understand. I think they're like joint ninth in the table. What is he resting his players for? Is he dying to try to get a conference league spot? What are you doing, bro?

41:07Julien Laurens:Yeah, I guess that's it. Trying to get that seventh spot. Eight might even be enough. It might also make it. I don't know. For what? Go for that. For conference league. I don't know. Maybe you can't win the FA Cup when you still have Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal, and City in it. Bro, listen. We're in the quarterfinals now, right?

41:26Gab Marcotti:For all you know, Liverpool are going to play Chelsea. And City are going to play Arsenal. and then two of those guys around and then maybe they play each other in the semifinal. And you know what? You're Fulham. It's not like you're in the conference league south.

41:39Julien Laurens:Okay, so there's things that we don't know. Some players maybe needed a rest. Eight of them all at once. No, no, no, but maybe needed a rest. He also probably thought that the team he put out was good enough to beat Southampton, which they were. It just didn't happen. I thought Southampton played well in their own style and those transitions were deadly, to be fair, and very, very well done. from Kyle Lahren and Finn Hazard and people like that. I thought they were really outstanding. Pace very disappointing from Fulham because that was a bit like Sunderland. That was the year where you could have given it a massive, massive go.

42:13Gab Marcotti:I don't follow the championship, so help me out. Are Southampton in danger of coming back up?

42:18Julien Laurens:Yeah, since they changed managers and SAC with Steel and Eckert came in, they have been outstanding. They are in the last playoff position, or if they're not, just outside. So yeah, very good. They're on a really, really good run of results. We told you it would happen and it did, talking about the championship. The Football League will have expanded playoffs next season, so not December, next one with clubs between 5th and 8th playing a one-legged eliminator tie in the championship for the playoffs in the League 1 and League 2 as well, I guess. Gab, do you like the name and do you like this new format?

42:53Julien Laurens:We've talked about the format before.

42:55Gab Marcotti:I don't particularly like it, I think. I think it's working well now. Why would we change it? Well, also, there has to be a sense of fairness, right? I appreciate the playoffs, but if I finish third and I have a 25-point lead over you, why got to go and play more games and stuff? What's the logic? I also wonder also about some team finishing seventh or eighth, not being good, fluking their way into the top, and then collecting two points in the Premier League next season. But most of all, what offends the eliminator, Ty? what marketing moron came up with that it's a horrible name come up with something better guys you can do it ugly scenes in the old firm after Celtic beat Rangers on penalties in the Scottish Cup

43:39Julien Laurens:Jules yeah because we saw a pinch invasion I mean as you would expect if you beat your rivals at their ground in a cup tie like this on penalties the Celtic fans went mental and mad and celebrated massively which angered some of the kind of like, I was gonna say ultras. They don't have ultras, but like the hardcore Rangers fans.

44:04Gab Marcotti:You say they don't have ultras, but when you see them, like they did that thing that many, they dress all in black and on top of that. Balaclavas. What, the balaclavas at a football match?

44:15Julien Laurens:Yeah, I know.

44:16Gab Marcotti:That should be bland straight up. Like it should be simple.

44:19Julien Laurens:I know. And the scenes that we saw pinched invasion, confronting each other, I thought the police did really well to be fair. and because I think it could have been far, far worse had the Celtic fans also got into the pitch and we would have had proper fights. I thought that was handled well. This is why Marseille fans don't go to Paris or PSG fans don't go to Marseille. Lyon fans don't go to Celtic. And this is why for many, many years, no Celtic fans were allowed to go to Ibrox. No Rangers fans were allowed to go to Celtic Park because of risk like that. And this was a terrible look, obviously, for Scottish football.

44:51Julien Laurens:there will be a lot of repercussions to it, sanctions, etc.

44:55Gab Marcotti:Sorry, I'm not that I'm obsessed with the ski mask aspect, but I don't understand why you're allowed in a football stadium with your face covered. I know that in many countries it's not allowed. I don't even know if it's allowed here in England. I'm going to get my Lucha Libre mask. I'm tempted to do it this weekend. And try to walk into a Premier League game wearing it. I guarantee you somebody will stop me.

45:19Julien Laurens:Maybe, yeah.

45:20Gab Marcotti:How are you supposed to identify and differentiate between the Rangers fans who behaved and the ones who didn't if they're all wearing ski masks?

45:28Julien Laurens:No, but if you wear it around your neck first, it looks like a scarf. So maybe when you go through the gates and they do the, I don't know how you call it. The pat down. Yeah. It's just a scarf and then you put it over your head. I don't know how, but there were so many in that clearly find a way of bringing him in. Mr. Marinaki strikes again, Gab. Edu, who looks after not just Forest, but Olympiacos as well, and other clubs from the Marienakis... Galaxy. Galaxy, I was going to say exactly, has been asked to stay away from the clubs running around at his forest, despite being a sporting director.

46:05Gab Marcotti:Yeah, so this is a funny one. Okay, so this story was in many outlets. So clearly the story is well sourced. Who would know that Edu's been asked to stay away? it's either the club who told them to stay away or it's Edu who was told to stay away so there is no mystery about where the story comes from the club insists that he's working as normal well clearly it's not because part of the sporting director's job is to go to the training ground and be a liaison it's not just to be far away and do deals and do contracts I don't know what's going on it was a very tight-knit loving relationship between him and Mr.

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48:42Gab Marcotti:Application times and rates may vary. Benfica come from two goals down to draw 2-2 at home to Porto. Jules. Porto, by the way, I think the lead is now, I mean, Benfica are now out of the title race. But they have two points or three points, I think, over Sporting.

48:58Julien Laurens:The seventh over Benfica and three over Sporting, who also drew this weekend. Jules, guess who got sent off in this game. Yeah, of course. Jose Mourinho, I think Otamendi as well, if I remember correctly from the game. Great game. I thought Porto were very good for most of it. Certainly until they went to Nilep, they had this young Polish wonder kid who scored a lovely goal at 17, who has a name that I think we will hear again very, very soon. And then when you think that's it, Benfica completely out of it. Benfica is still unbeaten, by the way, this season. The only team in one of the big six leagues to still be unbeaten.

49:36Julien Laurens:coming back into the game, it created a lot of tension within the Stadio de la Luz. There was a potential handball at the end and Diogo Costa. It was just all going off at the end, including the red card from Jose Mourinho facing his former club, obviously.

49:53Gab Marcotti:Jose Mourinho was very angry. He was. Somebody at Porto, people have speculated about Lucho Gonzalez. I'm not sure if 100 % concerned it was him, but he's former players. called him a traitor, a traitor to Porto. Now, I'm 100 % Team Jose on this one and only this one because he made the point that, you know, when he was Chelsea at Inter, Real Madrid, Fenerbahce, doesn't mention Spurs, funnily enough, but he was there too. He said he gave everything. He's a professional. To call a coach, especially, who can be sacked, a traitor because he goes and coaches a rival club, that is pretty freaking rich, especially if you have any sense of, of Jose Mourinho and the type of person he is.

50:40Gab Marcotti:Um, trader. I mean, that's like soul Campbell, maybe like somebody like that. But, uh, yeah, not come on, Luis Figo. Yes. But, but, but not Jose. Jose is a hired gun. He will give you everything once you hire him.

50:58Julien Laurens:X, The platform previously known as Twitter has removed a bunch of offensive posts about Liverpool and Manchester United created or made by Grok, which is his artificial intelligence. Gab, you went to university with Elon Musk. You must have some insight then on what's going on here.

51:14Gab Marcotti:I'm pretty sure Elon didn't write the code for Grok himself. Although, who knows? Who knows? This is really some pretty nasty stuff. I mean, it's the sort of nasty stuff that appears regularly on this platform, but it's one thing when it's morons in their basements putting it out. nasty tasteless stuff about hillsborough about scousers about the munich air disaster and and and so on it's just that you don't expect grok which is artificial intelligence to go and spout the stuff out but we've been here before remember when grok was calling itself mecca hitler and putting out all this anti-semitic nonsense i don't remember that but so it did happen uh and know x can apologize obvious issue is if you have a product that puts out i appreciate artificial intelligence uh isn't infallible whether you use gemini or claude or chat gbt you can see sometimes they put out false information but there's one thing we're putting out false information one thing is putting out information that is so inflammatory and so inaccurate and or racist or whatever else, whatever else you want to call it.

52:22Gab Marcotti:He's got some very clever engineers, although fewer engineers than he had before. He needs to take a long, hard look at this and how the language model works. Because to my knowledge, I'm not big on AI, but I have used Grok's rivals, what I call them that, from Gemini to Claude to Char-JPT. I've never encountered racist or anti-Semitic or sexual stuff on there. and this comes out with this. It's pretty horrible stuff as well because, of course, there's always people who helpfully screenshot it and share it with you. Cristiano Ronaldo is back in Spain dealing with a muscular injury. Al Nasser's coach, Jorge Jesus, confirmed this.

53:03Gab Marcotti:Jules, this has nothing to do with the war, apparently. Although, I wonder, there was a story about his private jet flying back to Spain, but he wasn't on it. Is he going to come back to pick him up?

53:13Julien Laurens:I don't know. Yeah, I'm not really sure exactly. I mean, we believe Al Nasser and George Jesus when they said they are in Spain. I don't know how he got there. He might have more than one plane maybe or something. You don't think he flew commercially, do you? I don't think he flew commercially. He hasn't flown commercially probably for a very long time even. It's a big blow for Al Nasser in the massive title race with Al-Hali and Al-Hilal. Obviously quite close there, which is very exciting if you're a fan of the Saudi Pro League and are watching it. And you should because there's some really good stuff there.

53:42Julien Laurens:I don't know. They didn't say when he would come back. i don't know if it's a two-week thing is it is he a big muscular injury is it just a little strain we don't really have much more on this so i guess we'll just have to wait and see yeah i hope he's

53:55Gab Marcotti:being just extra extra cautious with a view towards the world cup yeah maybe the malage nfa

54:01Julien Laurens:has lost its case at the court of arbitration for sport and will have to pay a hefty fine after fifa

54:08Gab Marcotti:found that they forged the documents of seven players yeah this is a pretty bizarro story so um so basically the all the the top executives have resigned in disgrace as a result um i look what they what what they were found guilty of doing is they got three spaniards two argentines a dutch guy and a brazilian and they said hey your grandmother or grandfather was born in malaysia therefore we can give you a Malaysian passport and you can play for Malaysia. Now, obviously, it's not like they're getting Pedri and Rodrigo de Polo. No, no, no, yeah. And Memphis de Pai, right? It's a bunch of randos, but still good enough to play for Malaysia.

54:51Gab Marcotti:What, it's right, it's awful. This looks like stuff that used to happen, sadly, like 15 years ago. It should be happening today. But I wonder, we don't have the names of these people, and I would really love to know who they are, because I think they should be banned too.

55:05Julien Laurens:I mean, it's pretty easy. We just need to go on those recent teams from Malaysia that they've put out for the national team, and then there will be, I guess, the play for them, right?

55:14Gab Marcotti:Yeah, I am really tempted. Because, Jules, were any of your grandparents born in Malaysia?

55:20Julien Laurens:No, and I think if somebody in the Malaysian FA... Do you know where they were born? Yeah. Someone at the Malaysian FA was saying to me, yeah, we can sort that out. I would say no. Would you have been tempted? Definitely not. Come on, come on. 18-year-old Jules playing in the French 4th Division. Yeah, but you know you're doing something wrong. Like you said, I think those players are going to get banned, by the way. For now, it's not the case, but I wouldn't be surprised if they are. So you put your own career into jeopardy because of that.

55:46Gab Marcotti:I'm guessing these are third division randos. Nobody's heard. We'll look this up.

55:49Julien Laurens:It's still their career.

55:51Gab Marcotti:Yeah, you're right. And not to mention the damage it does. Also, how stupid do you have to be to think that you can get away with this? Yeah, I agree. Like, hey, I didn't know Jose was Malaysian. Yeah. He doesn't really look Malaysian either. But whatever. Lionel Messi in the news, Jules. He scores for Inter Miami in the 2-1 win over DC United, making it 899 in his career for club and country. This is the stat, which, of course, is kind of fregazy to me, but it became an issue with Cristiano Ronaldo, and so we got to be equal here. We have to be equal. Also, a lot of people are giving him stick for visiting the White House with Inter Miami in what turned out to be a political setting because the president said some political things.

56:39Gab Marcotti:Yeah, exactly. You're champions of your American sport,

56:43Julien Laurens:whether it's soccer, hockey, basketball, baseball, American football. You'll be invited to the White House, wherever the president is. You can decide to go, not to go. We've seen many teams, franchises before not going, for example. Inter Miami, as a club, decided to go. They wanted to go. So even if you as a player don't really particularly want to go, I think you have to go there. I guess, yeah, you can take yourself out of it, but it would be a pretty strong call to make, especially when your boss, as in the owner of your football club who pays you said you have to go.

57:18Gab Marcotti:And your boss is very close to this president.

57:20Julien Laurens:Exactly. So we got to see Messi and Trump and Trump saying to Messi, who's better, you or Pelé? Which, I mean, some of the stuff that you would expect the president to say and those kind of things, right? David Beckham wasn't there. You could say that his wife was the Paris Fashion Week and Beckham and the family. It's funny how he always manages to avoid any political situation. It was his wife or Trump. You know, I think I know I would have done exactly the same, David, don't worry. So, yeah, I mean, those things. I don't know what we would do in the same position. If you were an intimate player, would you have gone?

57:57Gab Marcotti:um well i you kind of have to even if you don't want to really i think it depends i mean we're not going to make this about politics i think if you if you do have a heartfelt political position we've seen this i mean the u.s women's uh hockey team yeah for example decided i think collectively not to go we've seen other teams where some of the players go some don't i think the the reason people bring this up is that he didn't go and collect the presidential medal of freedom from Biden after Argentina won the World Cup. Yeah. And he didn't go to the Casa Rosada in Buenos Aires to meet with the president of Argentina after they won the World Cup.

58:36Gab Marcotti:And the interpretation was that he's like, I am above politics, so I don't want my picture taken with a politician, right or wrong. Funny enough, he would have been the first Argentine to receive the presidential. The second Argentine was, a week later, the late Pope Francis, of course. Pope Francis, oh wow. But I think the difficulty here, and I think it was. You want to show team unity. It's the start of the season. It's important to your owner. He would have made a political statement by not going. Yeah, yeah. What he might have done, especially since by his own admission, he has no idea what people are saying when they speak in English, is just sit there respectfully.

59:14Gab Marcotti:And since you don't have any idea what the man in the suit, who they call Mr. President, is saying, maybe don't react.

59:23Julien Laurens:Yeah.

59:23Gab Marcotti:Right? That might be the one thing that could have gotten him out of it. When you're a public figure and when you're a commercial public figure, there's a famous quote which gets attributed to Michael Jordan, which he never actually said, apparently. But I think the principle applies, which is Republicans buy sneakers too. So there's that dimension. If you decide I'm not going to be political, it can be difficult to kind of slalom between things.

59:47Julien Laurens:Iraq have asked for the World Cup Inter-Confederation playoff in March to be postponed, Gab. They would face the winner of Bolivia against Suriname in Mexico.

59:56Gab Marcotti:Yeah, so they have a number of issues here. Obviously, the fact that Iraqi airspace is closed because of the ongoing conflict in Iran. It would make sense to postpone the playoff. The one thing I would say is they put this out. It was reported in the Guardian elsewhere. oh because fifa suggested to them that they make a 25 hour uh journey by car and by the way it's not the whole squad that's behind it's part of the squad is in baghdad part of the squad is in dubai yeah um i looked at it and the idea was oh you guys drive 25 hours from baghdad to istanbul and then fly from istanbul okay first of all i don't understand why they need to do that because i myself and maybe fifa's travel department might want to hire me one day or maybe hire me as a consultant all they have to do is actually just drive like 10 hours i know it's still a lot yeah to uh dier barker where there's an airport and then they can take an internal turkish flight turkish airspace is open right right so to me there's a bit of spin in this story now if you want to say we're not in the right state of mind there's bombs there's war next door blah blah blah i get that and it still might be unfair but i don't know what you can postpone this to because the calendar is what it is.

1:01:07Gab Marcotti:And Bolivia and Suriname also have other professional players who play in professional leagues. So, I don't know. I think FIFA need to help them find a solution. Yeah, a tricky one. And certainly not a 25-hour road trip. That sounds dire. Jules, this brings us to an end. But we got to come back on Thursday. Oh, yes. You know why? Yes. The champions. Oh, God, I'm hyped and I am. Until then, love the game. Love your neighbor. Love yourself.