Gab & Juls Show: How has Vincent Kompany changed Bayern?

23:37There was only so much money to go around. He didn't make it about money leaving. So I wish people could understand that a little bit more. I mean, do you think he handled it badly?

23:47Julien Laurens:No, I think it's like living on a freak. I know he was not a freak because there was that 10 million pound. What I would say on this, why is Xabi Alonso bringing him on? So he can get booed. Why did you expose him like that? Why did you humiliate him? All I can think of is maybe a set piece, no? They were well beaten. They should have been phoning down by then. he didn't change anything apart from being booed by his own people. I just didn't understand why Xabi Alonso felt the need of bringing him on, really. Yet another clean sheet for Arsenal, who haven't conceded since September, Jules. They beat Slavia Prague 3-0, and none of the goals are set-piece, although the first was a penalty.

24:28Yeah, a penalty, and they got the penalty via set-piece.

24:31Julien Laurens:Oh, so we're going to give Nicolas credit for that one, too. I'm just saying. Mikel Marino, again, as a number nine. I mean, his record as a number nine when he starts. It makes no sense to me. Like, it goes in 13 starts of the nine. It's ridiculous. You know what? That was so Merino because on the first one, okay, he was left unmarked but he was good, right? But he found the space and it was good. The second one, I mean, a keeper makes a mess. Oh my goodness. But imagine when you have three number nine, your three number nines all are Giocares, Havers, Gabriel Jesus and then you bring your box-to-box midfield because that's where he is.

25:09Julien Laurens:As a nine and he has two goals in Champions League. It's ridiculous. I'm pretty sure if I define him as box-to-box he's not that quick. More that quick. Another game, another 19 minutes without scoring Fountain of Conte's Napoli. Gab, what's going on? Do they miss Lukaku and De Bruyne that badly? What's going on, Jules, is that they played Eintracht Frankfurt. And context matters. We think of Eintracht like, yeah, Dino Totemuller attacking football, how exciting, blah, blah, blah. Yeah, they played an Eintracht team that had conceded, I think 99 goals in the previous four games or something like that.

25:37Something like that, yeah. So what did he do? Dino Topmuller, who was named for Dino Zoff, and so therefore went on full-on lockdown mode. Catanacho. Massive Catanacho. They defended. They defended in numbers, and it's tough to break them down. They played a lot better in this game. As you know, I have no problem saying when they play badly and Kota win 1-0 and Kota talks about their toughness, we knew how to suffer. I say, that's all nonsense. I want to see you creating chances and not conceding chances. they did create chances Zambanguisa, McTominay didn't take them would it have been better with Lukaku and De Bruyne?

26:10Sure, because they're very good footballers, but they're not there the important thing was to see progress compared to their last outing and we had that

26:21Mr. Champions League Hans Van Aken, single-handedly no, just kidding, not single-handedly he got a lot of help from the Barcelona defence but he helps Bruges to a 3-3 draw with Barcelona Little help also from, yeah, of course, as I mentioned, from Hansi Flick's demented high line. And they could have won this, that Chesney thing at the end.

26:41Julien Laurens:That controversy on the fourth goalscore by Bruges, Vermeer. I mean, the fact that the referee, Anthony Taylor, changed his mind after looking at the screen, after VR intervention, and the fact that the Bruges players didn't really complain that the goal was not allowed, made me think that they also thought it was the right call, but there was not much into it. That doesn't take away the fact that Barcelona defensively were atrocious again, that you can have the highland if you want. It's very risky. We've said that many times. But if on top of the highland, there's no pressing in midfield and you let the British players just move the ball as they want, with a lot of space, they're going to punish you because they're good and they're quick.

27:23Julien Laurens:Forbes, Van Aken, as you said, Tresoldi, all of that, they're good players. Especially when you have bad central defenders. There was no Pau Cubarsi in this game. He had to enjoy Eric Garcia with Araujo. We got to give a shout out to Lamine Yamal. Incredible goal. And you know what I'm going to say. I almost love the Fermin back-heel assist as much as Lamine's dribbling and finishing. But what a special goal. I am positively almost offended by what Flick said post-game when he said like, oh, I'm not going to change. It's in our DNA. That's fine. But then he says, you know, we're not going to become Because what's the alternative?

28:01Sitting deep and winning games 1-0? Like, no. No, that's not the alternative. People have won games by alternating, playing a high line sometimes and going back. I've been playing the medium blocks and he still scored a lot of goals and they're still very entertaining. He's not helping himself when he says stuff like this. Yeah, this would be done for him.

28:20Julien Laurens:Karabakh, do it again, Gab. You finished 2-2 against Chelsea and it could have been more. Yeah, it could have been more Insomanezka rotating because he believes it's necessary. Although, to be fair, I don't even think rotation was that big an issue in this one. In a sense, Moises Caicedo, who, frankly, with Cole Palmer out, Moises Caicedo is the other half of the team. He comes on early because, guess who? Gets injured again, Romeo Lavia. Atrocious defending Tosin, Jarrell Hato. They really, really struggled. I don't think they were great at the attacking end either. Terry George getting the nod.

28:56I assume the lap would have started if they maybe want to send a message to him for a stupid, stupid red card before. It felt like they underestimated Carabag. We need to give a shout out, though, to Carabag, to Camilo Duran. Yeah. As a player. I don't know if it was the other Duran who maybe changed his name to Camilo. And like, we know Camilo Duran. But yeah. This is the champion. They like to find him in Portugal. And, you know, it's good. They have seven points. They're in a really, really strong. And they've already played Chelsea and Benfica. Yeah. so looking good but yeah Mareska needs to bounce back definitely Tottenham Hotspur beat up Copenhagen 4-0 as Mickey van der Veen goes coast to coast Jules all well for the man

29:37Julien Laurens:with two first names well better for sure before hosting United at the weekend in the Premier League Copenhagen are a pretty bad team really and if Assati didn't exist I would probably say Copenhagen are the worst team yeah and Ajax and Ajax right now you're right for Copenhagen to be worse when they were playing with 11 men against 10. I think tells you a lot how bad they are. But well done to Spurs. You can only beat what's in front of you. Colomani had a good game. Odebe had a good game. That goal from Micky Messi on the van is just incredible. Really incredible. I know he said afterwards that he used to be a striker.

30:17Julien Laurens:But he's not a striker now. He's obviously like 20 feet tall and heavy. But he's still the quickest player in the Premier League and still capable of dribbling past five players, running 84 yards. I think it was the longest ever carry of the ball leading to a goal, basically. Beating Vinicius Junior's record. Yes. Since 2015, I think. Incredible. That's the Pushkas Award there, just for you. Phil Foden is back, Gab. He scores two as Manchester City overcome Borussia Dortmund 4-1. So, two goals, both from the edge. I mean, similar in some ways in terms of where he received the goal. as a ball, the execution very differently.

30:55One of them, the Dortmund defense sitting way back. We praise Kovacs for having them be more solid, but guys, you don't need to line up on the six-yard box. The second one, the execution was just so quick. It was fantastic. Look, if he goes back to being the player he was two years ago, that Foden-Reinders in the middle, that's pretty special. And then give me two fast wingers like they have, and that Holland guy who, of course, scored, but that's not really news. You're on to something. What I would caution against, there's 3-0 up, Doku falls asleep, Dortmund pull one back, then they have another chance.

31:30Donnarumma's to make a save. Then Donnarumma has the other one where Donnarumma, he's got to go and win a tackle and then another tackle. So much for those who say, oh, look, he's too big, he's too slow. In the last 20 minutes, I'm not saying they were going to lose the game because the fourth goal... No, but they lost a bit of control, for sure. They definitely lost control and I don't think Pep's going to be happy with that part. Yeah, yeah. Atletico Madrid rolled to a 3-1 win over Union San Julioz as Giuliano Simeone shines and the spider Julian Alvarez scores. Jules, this was a lot closer than it should have been.

32:04Julien Laurens:Right, yeah. Union came back to 2-1 with Sykes, the giant defender who played for Stockport or Southport. I don't know, like... Akrington Stanley, I think he started out. Yeah, yeah. In England, in all the lower leagues because they were they stayed in the game. They made it difficult, physical for Atletico, who I didn't think had much fluidity in their game at all and scored that third goal really late. So it's a win, which is what you need after the 4-0 defeat at Arsenal in matchday three, but it's still not that convincing. You're not going to name-check the Atletico midfielder who made it 2-1?

32:41Conor Gallagher! I know you're his biggest fan. Of course, yeah.

32:46Julien Laurens:The San Blavé scores, but you were held at home by Sporting 1-1 Bempi South for Spalletti in the Champions League. Yeah, they were messed up. I mean, Vavic, I thought, actually looked good. And I think he's got a manager who, you know, common sense. Oh, look, this guy is bigger, taller, faster, stronger, more gifted than everybody else on my team other than Kevin Yieldis. Of course, I want to go and build around him. Unlike the previous managers, Sporting scored a phenomenal team goal. Like, I know, like, when you go, when you watch highlights. Sometimes you only get like the last 10 seconds and you're like, ah, whatever.

33:21But as you can, watch the whole buildup. That was tremendous from Sporting. Juve missed chances. They seemed insecure to me. And it's something you have to work on. But hey, you have good Vlaovic. That's a story. That's very important. Controversy and a wonder goal at the Vela Blancjews. Juric loses it with Lukman. Did Zadby waves his iPad? And gets booked, of course. Edison's handball is somehow not a penalty and Lazar Samaric scores a one-day goal. For me, better than van der Veen. Okay, okay. That means he's just a big dude. He starts running. Once he starts running, there's inertia. You're 2-0 up.

33:58You're playing against the Muppet Show. There's a fair amount of luck involved. Samaric, we've seen him do this before.

34:04Julien Laurens:Yeah, but that's the thing. You see those goals before. You haven't seen the van der Veen goal before. So that's why I still prefer van der Veen's goal. Great game at the Velodrome, not for Marseille, but I thought, to be fair, Atlanta, we're the better team anyway. and then the Zerbi Yuris takes Lukman off weirdly because he's the best player something he said between the two they almost come to blows I think it might because Lukman had scored the goal that was disallowed for some complicated offside which I didn't really understand I think it might have had something to do with that but not a good look by the way not a good look at all and then Ederson controls the ball in his box the ball goes up he's got his arm he hits his arm doesn't change the trajectory of the ball not like a Marseille player he would not have changed anything but the play goes on and where the Marseille players were at fault is that they stopped playing you always say whatever age you are playing football like the Leipzig whistle always is very simple they didn't San Marseille just goes and scored a wonderful goal a curl in the top corner great and Dezebi was not happy thought it should have been a penalty shot on the high pass look look it's a penalty the referee went to see VAR and didn't change his mind.

35:18Julien Laurens:Was it a penalty, Jules? You skirted around that. I don't know. I thought there was one earlier on O 'Reilly that I thought was more of a penalty than that one. That's for sure. Heartfully done. It's a hat-trick for your boy Victor Ozyman. Gabi Azghalat-Azari beat Ajax 3-0 in Amsterdam as well. We obviously all know what this means. Yes. The best is yet to come. Mr. Victor Ozyman, is the top goal scorer in the Champions League this season. Admittedly, two of them were penalties tonight. He's ahead of such no marks as Harry Kane, Erling Haaland, and Kylian Mbappe. And only four teams have more points than Galatasaray in the table.

35:59So what do I have to say? I have to say respect. Respect. Look, Ajax are terrible. What can I say? But Oseeman's special. Newcastle keep rolling along nicely, Jules. is a 2-0 against a heavily depleted, must be said. Yeah. And that they Bilbao, no Sunset, no Williams brothers, and so on.

36:19Julien Laurens:Yes, yeah. And Bilbao had some chances to be fine. Nick Pope had to come up with two good saves. They were saved by the post as well. But yeah, it was still a control win. Very good. I mean, one of the best headers you would see this season from Dan Byrne on that 3-3 free kick. Joy Hinton. Can I speak a point about the header? You know, I return to you for the Techers. Heading is something I know a little bit about. I'm watching it, and the commentator's like, oh, look at the swerve he puts on the header. And I'm like, he does not put swerve on the header. What he does is the ball from Trippier actually comes in quite flat and hard.

36:55And if you look, I know Dan Byrne is a big, strong guy, but he's not hitting the ball hard enough to put swerve on it. He's simply redirecting it, and he almost glances it. It's extremely difficult to do, which actually makes me think that he doesn't, and he probably doesn't even need to do it. I don't even know that he was trying to do it. It was a tremendous header because I think it was difficult to make the connection accurately. So all credit to Dan Burr. But it's not like he's David Beckham or Juninho putting swerve on the header.

37:27Julien Laurens:Let's be a little realistic about this, yes? It's the same goal that I scored, but on the other side in the League Cup, obviously, against Liverpool. Inter somehow have a tough time at home against Gara Almaty in a 2-1 win gap, it's a bit embarrassing, no? It's very embarrassing, and you hope it doesn't go and bite them in the backside later on in the competition. Because goal difference, even though I don't believe in goal difference, philosophically, sadly, UEFA do. And it could make a difference. And the reality is, yeah, Inter are perfect. They've won every game, but they haven't played too many good sides.

38:03And they've got some, it's just like Ajax, Slavia Prague, this lot. and they have some really tough games coming up. So it would have helped. They created a ton of chances and it didn't go in. I heard a lot of ex-pros talking about this afterward on Italian television, and they made it the point that when you play against people who are so much worse than you are, it's really easy to get disjointed, to sink to their level. Is that a thing, Joel? Do we buy that? because they move more slowly. They're out of position. They can't control the ball. And so you're like, oh, what's this? This is different.

38:41Julien Laurens:Yeah, yeah. And I think you take it for granted a little bit. But the goal they conceded was unacceptable, man. Come on. That, not good. No. But Marcus Choran came off the bench. Yeah, exactly. He's going to help. Good to see him back. This is becoming a pattern with Bodo Glimt tools. They outplay the opposition for long stretches and then they lose this time to Monaco. 1-0, Flo Balagan. Right, Cole, yeah. American goal in the first ever Champions League. Yeah, great one too with Akliusz. Amazing finish, really. But Bologlin in atrocious conditions, the rain, the wind on the plastic pitch, obviously hitting the post, having many chances.

39:23Julien Laurens:Philippe Koen in goal for Monaco had to make some big saves in the end, even at 10 v 11 because Bologlin got a red card towards the end. They were still threatening, so Monaco will take that every day, especially after the defeat at the weekend. But for Bodo Glimt, a bit like the Spurs game, when they only drew where they should have won, really, it's another bad result. As you know, managing maintenance, repair, and operations is never easy. But for the ones who always rise to the challenge, Granger has your back. From professional-grade products you can count on to fast, dependable delivery, they're there to help you keep things running smoothly.

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40:40Julien Laurens:And Messi only trusts Duracell. Tough times for Jose Mourinho. Has Benfica lose at home to buy a Leverkusen to remain on zero points, Gab? Yeah, so obviously he took over after the first one. And since then, it's been three defeats. Patrick Schick getting the getting the winner there I feel for Mourinho a little bit I thought Benfica were the better team yeah certainly in terms of chances created and everything it does severely complicated matters because I think coming up coming up this weekend even our elections Manuel Rui Costa we saw this could have an impact and Benfica by the way they're third I think he's unbeaten in the league still but in the Champions League he has been under the top.

41:29And I think he's played Porto and... They drew with Porto. They drew with Porto. Ricardo Pepe scores in injury time to upset Olympiacos and especially Mr. Marinakis because the finish is 1-1. Jules, they get bosched and I think Olympiacos deserve more.

41:48Julien Laurens:Yeah, I agree. I mean, first of all, Greg Goldbach, Jetson Martins, wonderful kind of like first touch with his knee and volley then. Yeah, actually, can we make a case that maybe that's the best goal? Forget Van der Venn. Stop it. You never see goals like Van der Venn. You see one son against Burnley, a George Weah, a Gareth Bale there and there. Somebody running the length of the pitch with the ball? I mean, I saw Diego Maradona do it against England in 1986. But yeah, Gregor, and you're right, they deserve better. There was nothing from PS behind them in this game. I think they had one shot on target until the goal.

42:26Julien Laurens:in the 90th minute with the next Gio 0.2. And yet Pepi with a massive luck because the keeper should save it. Kotsaris. And then it's a defender. The ball is played not for Pepi, but the ball then bounces off a defender in Pepi's path for him to volley. So well done to Peter Bosch and PSV Eindhoven. But we went from them humiliating Napoli scoring six goals to for 19 minutes doing nothing away Olympiacos until a miracle. He's still Peter Bosch. Yeah. But we moved him ahead of Eric Ten Hag. Yeah, definitely. Oh, definitely. All right, just checking. And we would love Eric Ten Hag to get a wolf's job, obviously.

43:07Julien Laurens:Sticking with your friend or our friend, Mr. Marinakis, Gabi, he went on trial today in Greece for instigating violent and supporting a criminal group. Yeah. So this is a quote from the charges. Okay, how can I say this? They're very serious charges. They also sound out of context, they sound a lot worse than what it is. So it's not just him on trial. It's not like Mr. Marinaki's rampages through Athens with his criminal gang in tow, instigating violence. What happens, of course, he's a board member at Olympiacos, five board members, and 142 fans are basically on trial. The genesis of this was a tragic incident in 2023, which cost the life of a police officer, right police officer, in fighting, it's actually outside a women's volleyball match.

44:02Oh, wow, okay. It was Olympia Costa and Panathinaikos. So obviously these are multi-sport setups like we have in Spain with Barcelona and whatnot, where some flares went off. And I think the general thesis of the prosecution is that you have out-of-control fans. Some of these fans, they're fans by day, but then by night they deal in drugs, they do other things. You know that these are bad elements, and still you associate with them. These are not all, but these are mostly Olympia Cross Ultras. And so you're somehow responsible for this as well. They've also been accused of intimidating referees and stuff like that.

44:44From where I sit, and I am certainly not a lawyer, these sound like charges that are very hard to prove. and yeah, supporting a criminal group is really a stretch no matter how much you may dislike marinakis. And I know we joke about them with the spitting and all this stuff, but yeah, it's, come on, let's, it's a tough one and it's difficult and Paris Saint-Germain, of course, you know well, they had issues way back when you actually had two different ultras groups who hated each other, right? Yeah. So it's, part of what brings the color also brings problems. Pafos, who as everybody knows, didn't exist until 12 years ago.

45:25They get their first ever win in Champions League and they beat none other than Marcelino and Villarreal, Jules.

45:32Julien Laurens:Third in La Liga, which is an embarrassing defeat. I mean, I felt the Champions League this week was a terrible look for La Liga overall. But that game, even more than anything else, really, because Villarreal had some chances and yeah, on another day, they could have won, they should have won in Cyprus. But they didn't. Lukashen scored on a set piece, a corner so badly defended. And yeah, this was history for Parfos. David Luiz is Parfos, of course. Well done to them because now they're on five points. You know, they had two hard-earned draws before with 10 men because they usually get a play sent off.

46:13Julien Laurens:Not in this game, but they still beat the third-best team currently in La Liga. Carabag on seven, Paphos on five. All you rich, big clubs from big leagues, hang your heads in shame. More Marinakis as well. Crystal Palace have been charged for a banner mocking him when they played Nottingham Forest back in August. Yeah, so for those who don't know, you as a football club are responsible for banners that your fans display. They had a banner. It was a cartoon Marinakis. You might have seen this. Holding a gun to Morgan Gibbs White's head. Remember Morgan Gibbs White at the time, he was strongly linked with Tottenham, who reportedly had triggered his release clause, but then Forrest, for some reason, wouldn't let him go.

46:55And what it said is, Mr. Marinakis is not involved in blackmail, is not, and I stress not, involved in blackmail, match fixing, drug trafficking, or corruption. So I think they thought they were being very clever there. The problem is when you put the knot in front of somebody and you mention some terrible crime, I think there's a legal basis for it. We'll see what happens. If Palace approve this, I guarantee this, they won't next time if they get fined or there's action taken against them. Chelsea have appointed former Liverpool transfer guru Dave Fallows to their club's sporting leadership team.

47:33They basically have five sporting directors now. Can you read their names in alphabetical order?

47:38Julien Laurens:Yes, I can. Gabby, so Dave Fowler, as you said, Sam Jewell, Joe Shields, Laurence Stewart, and Paul Gwynn Stanley. I mean, you always need more sporting directors, Gab. Why not? I mean, and they're not on little money, I can tell you that as well. And they all have contracts through 2031. Yeah, exactly. This is baffling, I think. It's absolutely remarkable because everything that you've been told, the convention I mean but it's just Chelsea doing things different I could make the joke well look they have 150 players under contract of course they need five sporting directors I mean I was at Watford yesterday and I met with a guy who's the sporting director at two different clubs in two different countries so you could argue that you know he does 10 times the work these guys do because I'm assuming Strasbourg have their own sporting director yes they just changed there it's David Weir oh that's David Weir former of course a Brighton alum of course of course we can make fun of this and point out that in the corporate world there's usually a hierarchical mirror middle structure where there's one guy at the top and different people are responsible for different things they've gone for this almost five it's a communist approach if you will five people, five heads are better than one I don't know do they vote?

49:00do they lock themselves in a row? they go slightly different rows I think summer looking. Not really though because two of them are sporting directors. The two have some other nonsense. It's all, that is scouting and football development. It's all the same thing.

49:13Julien Laurens:Yeah, it's also something that they've got different titles. And historically, they've all been sporting directors and foodmen's type. So that's what they bring to the table. Look, let's mock it, but you know what? If it works, everybody will be copying for it. And there'll be so many, so many more sporting director jobs available. So good, so good, so good. New summer arrivals are at Nordstrom Rack stores now. Get ready to save big with up to 60 % off brands like Rag & Bone, Levi's, Adidas, and Free People. Join the Nordic Club to unlock exclusive discounts, shop new arrivals first, and more.

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49:57Julien Laurens:That's the sound of zero sugar, 200 milligrams of caffeine, and the power to burn body fat. Storm, energy for life. Storm Energy Blend helps boost metabolism, which in combination with exercise and a healthy diet helps burn fat. This product alone does not produce weight loss. Individual results may vary. Gavin, an unlawful story involving Destiny Udoji who was threatened at gunpoint by a football agent in North London. That's right. Owing to the laws that they have in this country and the fact that it's big to you from London, I can't tell you who the guy was, even though I know his name. I think a lot of people, you just go on the internet, you can easily find the name of the guy who threatened him, who works for a major sporting agency.

50:36Big company. Maybe I should speak in the past tense, because I don't see how you stick around there at all. I hate saying that he is not Destiny Udoji's agent in any way, shape, or form.

50:48Julien Laurens:Yeah. But he was approached, he was threatened, his friend was threatened, threatened that at some point he pulled a gun. And again, some of you listening to us might live in places where guns are commonplace, where maybe they're open carry situations or everybody or a lot of people have guns. We live in the UK where guns are extremely rare. It's almost impossible to get a permit to carry a gun around with you. So when you pull out a firearm, they take this very seriously and it's hard for you to go to prison. Anyway, the guy has been, the guy's out on bail right now. Udoji seems to be fine. Yeah.

51:28Everybody knew it was him. For some reason, he wasn't actually publicly named until the day before yesterday when then Spurs put out a statement. But look, he played. He got to enjoy Van de Ven's goal. We shall see him going like this because we can't actually believe it. I'm glad he's well. We don't need this. Agents with guns threatening people. Yeah. A tragic tale from Serbia where Bosnian coach Mladen Zizovic collapsed and died during a match.

51:55Julien Laurens:Yeah, he was 44. Gabi was the Warniki manager and they played Mladost and he collapsed after 21 minutes, 22 minutes, went to hospital, but they could not save him. And yeah, it's a terrible, terrible story. A heart attack. It's on the touchline. It's horrendous and even just the reactions of the players on the pitch. Don't look at the pictures. You don't need to. Fiorentina, ein Job oder Gab? we knew that but now they've sacked Stefano Pioli their sporting director Daniele Prade has resigned as well and the fans are on the warpath yes there's even some reports that suggest Daniele Prade is in hiding at this point yeah Daniele Galloppa was the first player in Italy to wear rainbow laces fun fact back when it wasn't a thing he's the interim coach I think the owner Rocco Comiso dealing with some personal stuff right now so there is kind of a there's kind of a void there Roberto Daversa not a guy I'm a big fan of for style of football seems to be in the driver's seat Fiorentina fans are some of the most demanding fans in the world alongside I think with Valencia fans certainly the team deserves better but they also should have many more points at the table Dizzy Redouet has won the Golden Bowl.

53:24Jules, I know, and anybody who listened to the show a couple weeks ago knows, but please remind us, well, we know this voice is the best young player playing in the top division in Europe, blah, blah, blah. But surely that would be La Minha Malle.

53:38Julien Laurens:Listeners will know why it's not La Minha Malle. We know that if you've won it already, you can't win it again. So you couldn't vote for La Minha Malle. I'm part of the jury, so I voted. But not for La Minha Malle. But don't follow me on, obviously. My two-five was Due, Yildiz, Goula, Mastantono, and Heusson. So I'm glad my boy Desiree Due won. As you know, I like that. I think they should... Maybe not the Ballon d 'Or because Ballon d 'Or is established. Any of these other ones, FIFA the best. Make your prize different from the Ballon d 'Or. Say, like, you could only win it once or something like that.

54:13Julien Laurens:Daniel De Rossi is back, Gab. He's taking over Genoa after the departure of Patrick Vieira. Yeah, from one midfield icon to another midfield icon. Although Daniel De Rossi in some ways is kind of like the photo negative of Patrick Vieira in terms of personality and approach. I'm a big fan of De Rossi. I think Geno have a decent setup. I don't quite know what in the end happened with Patrick Vieira other than obviously the position on the table. But I'm glad that he's back and eager to see what he did. He didn't do great at Spal, obviously, but let's see what he can bring. Wrexham winger James McLean explained why he punched a Cardiff fan in the face after being confronted in a car park.

54:58Jules, I can't say I blame him.

54:59Julien Laurens:Yeah, I know. He said that words were said. This tall guy with glasses made a hostile move towards him, he explained. So he felt threatened in his workplace and he said like he wasn't waiting for him to make the first swing so he went first. Strike first, strike hard, still no mercy. Four against one, he said I was on my own so I went for it. We should also maybe remind people why McLean is a controversial figure. Yeah, for the first time. Exactly. He doesn't, McLean is from Northern Ireland. This time of year in England a lot of people wear poppies and remembrance to celebrate veterans of the British Army.

55:45McLean, by choice, does not. Probably because he's a Catholic guy from Northern Ireland. I know there's a lot of people on the other side and the Troubles and all this jazz. And I think it's, I don't know if we know for sure, but I'm pretty sure these four guys didn't approach Jamie McLean just to taunt him. I'm pretty sure it probably had to do with McLean's politics on this one.

56:07Julien Laurens:Yeah. Yeah. Oh, the rivalry between Ruxham and Cardiff when they played each other in the League Cup and Cardiff, you know, Cardiff Horn, maybe as the two Welsh clubs, I don't know. I mean, sorry, if you're Cardiff, shouldn't you be picking on some of your own size, like Swansea? I mean, you're Welsh adjacent here. Yeah. Your rivals are Swansea. You should treat Wrexham like dreck, right? That's what a big club does, yeah? But Wrexham plays in a better division than you, though. That's true. That is true. I'm sure do Swansea. And Wrexham has more handsome owners, I would assume. Or one more handsome owner.

56:35Julien Laurens:Yeah, for sure, yeah. Galb, remember how the money from the forced sale of Chelsea was supposed to go to the victims of the war in Ukraine, but instead is still sitting, collecting interest in Roman Abramovich's bank account. Not only is it still there, Galb, but it looks like if anything ever does get paid out, it would be less than half of what we thought. So, yeah. We've followed the story closely. Well, it's my old colleague Martin Ziegler from the Times. Every three, four months updates us on the story. Now, it's taken an extraordinary twist. There were a long time, the idea was, all right, Roman Abramovich, so Russia invades Ukraine.

57:15Roman Abramovich is forced to sell Chelsea, right? We know this, even though he doesn't actually get officially sanctioned in court, but he works on the deal where he sells Chelsea. They go through the whole process, reign, Todd Boley, Bedadig Bali, and their investors buy the club. In the end, the number, I think 2.35 billion pounds. and they say, all right, as part of it, everybody reports and the British government reports. Oh, look, we've worked out a deal. That money will go to this charity in Ukraine. Then the money goes and it just sits there in the account. And different stories come out once as well.

57:48But when Abramovich says victims of the war in Ukraine, he means victims on both sides, Russia and blah, blah, blah, and Ukraine. That doesn't sit well with the government. Seems absurd. This money's just sitting there. It's not being used for what it should be used for, just humanitarian reasons. Now, according to the account of the holding company, the agreement seems to be that, no, no, it's not 2.35 billion, which is what Abramovich got for the club. It's Abramovich's profit. So in other words, you take what Abramovich paid for the club, you take what Abramovich put into the club over the years, which is about 1.54 billion pounds, because obviously he made a lot of loans to Chelsea over the years.

58:28and then you take the net amount, which is 923 million pounds, which is... Look, it's more than a billion dollars. It'll help, but it's not what we were told was originally. And why they couldn't have done this transparently and in a way that everybody understands why there's still bound to be litigation and lawyers making money, like ghouls off of this, I just find this whole thing sickening. Football Association will have to pay more than 1 million pounds in legal costs after losing their case against Lucas Paqueta.

58:59Julien Laurens:Jules, this is also really embarrassing. It is embarrassing for them. This took so long. And I mean, if you look at Paqueta, you feel really aggrieved by it. And I think he also deserved compensation or something because he would have gone too much to the city. There was probably other moves that could have happened, didn't happen because of that investigation on that match-fixing incident on Paqueta Island, all of that. And now for the FA to have to pay one million to your friends' lawyers, it's just the cherry on the cake, really, for what was such a bad, bad thing. Gab, who is Tony Scholes?

59:35Julien Laurens:Anything to do with Paul Scholes? And why are we talking about him? Tony Scholes is Paul Scholes' alter... No, just kidding. No, so Tony Scholes is a guy who worked for the Premier League. He's their chief football officer. I have never actually met the guy, but people I really know and respect say that he's actually really, really brilliant. Okay. But the interesting thing, for me is he's been recruited to head uh the usl united soccer league in the u.s who um obviously right now they operate i think three leagues their class is division two so they're usually in smaller cities and whatnot but they're going all in they're going they're going to become a division one league um they have promotion and relegation yeah and they're going to compete with mls now if you're going to set this up you need some really smart people to make sure you You can do it in a way that's financially sustainable, in a way that you really are competing with MLS.

1:00:27And by all accounts, Scholes is that man. So I think he's going to be a really important and powerful figure in U.S. soccer in the coming years. Lionel Messi and Inter Miami will face Nashville in the decisive third game of their best of three playoff first round this weekend. But Luis Suarez won't be there, Jules.

1:00:48Julien Laurens:No, he got one match ban retrospectively after the second game where, I mean, you wrote on our nose, donkey kick, I didn't know if that was the name, but basically Andy Nallier is behind him and for no reason, really no reason, Suarez kind of like put his legs out and kicks him from behind, basically. It's just the weirdest thing ever. You say no reason, unlike the many reasons he had to go and bite Jelini and Ivanovic and spit on the guy from whatever. Take the League's Cup final, Cup's final. I don't know. Because even Suarez is ahead of Naya on that. It just doesn't make any sense. I mean, I think Intermary have enough to win anyway.

1:01:32Julien Laurens:We win without him. But it's just another... We're 2-0 down until that messy magic. So I don't know. I think MLS will feel really, really stupid if the biggest attraction bows out this early. Yeah, that's true. Gab, FIFA have introduced something called the FIFA Peace Prize. Yes, and they will hand it out on December 5th, which is when the FIFA World Cup draws. The award will be presented to individuals who, through their unwavering commitment and their special actions, have helped to unite people all over the world in peace and consequently deserve a special and unique recognition. Okay. Now, I say this with the greatest of love, Johnny.

1:02:17We've known each other for 20-odd years. Don't do this. Unless you want to pull a rabbit out of that hat. It's like, you know, for service to football if I give you a prize. Right. But everybody assumes that this is going to go to his friend in the White House who ended the Eight Wars, who, you know, was disappointed that he didn't get the Nobel Peace Prize. I understand you have to work with him. I understand you like him. That's fine. But you're a football organization. Yeah. You have 210 constituent members. You like him. He likes you. You work together. World Cup is on track, for better or worse.

1:02:53Yeah. Why do this when you know that there are a lot of people who will see this as you reaching new levels of sucking up? I don't think it makes him look good. Oh, I didn't win that prize. You know, maybe he'll win the prize. prize which is what this is going to be. And also, you're a football organization. Do I want football people deciding on when I need a dentist? Do I go to the butcher? You should be getting out football prizes. I'm just trying to dissuade you. I'm sure you can find somebody who helped unite people all over the world who actually has some legitimate connection to football.

1:03:32And if you want to give the prize to them, by all means. But right now, the way it's looking, people again are making fun of him for being a bootlicker, which is just way over the top, I think, even for him. And as you know, I defend him more than almost anybody. If you say it,

1:03:51Julien Laurens:you must be... Jules, this brings us to an end, but we got to come back on Monday because there's a pretty big game involving Manchester City and Liverpool this weekend. Until then, among a whole bunch of other things, until then, love the game, love your neighbor, love yourself.

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