Gab & Juls Show: Is Mo Salah's Liverpool career over?

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0:35Julien Laurens:Hello, welcome to the Gab and Juul show. No Gab, Marco Tissou. Look who's come down to be here with me, Nelian Manoa. Thank you so much, my man, to be here. Loads of things happened this weekend on the field, off the field as well. We had the World Cup draw, for example. We had a lot of big games in England, in Germany, in Spain, everywhere, in Europe. But really, we have to start at Ellen Road and at Leeds. not so much yet for the Leeds Liverpool draw another disappointing performance and result overall for Liverpool but for what happened after in the mixed zone and that Mo Salah interview absolutely yeah by the way we need to mention the World Cup draw is probably just about finished now three four days later thank you guys for drawing all those words yeah thank you thank you but yeah what bombshell would you say bombshell moment how would you qualify I would say bombshell yeah I think people were trying to use bombshell and the reason it's significant is because for many people in my opinion they now have an idea of what the mix zone is you know because usually like as a player you like you have to walk through this area where all the written journalists and stuff are but you just walk through your headphones on sometimes playing music sometimes not yeah but if you're going in there and you're choosing to stop you're choosing to stop for a reason because you don't have to do it yeah exactly so you don't want to do it usually you don't if nobody wants to say anything usually like most of the time when we see interviews is because people have to do it yeah but in this instance not having to do it like and the word was I think it was Beth on FC was saying that as Slott was doing his press conference that's when Salah was doing his thing at the same time and then as soon as you know Salah said what he said everybody starts picking it up yeah so why did Mo Salah feel he needed to do that you know do you understand do you understand his frustration as a former player yeah yeah and not being used to it yeah yeah absolutely he's 100 % not used to it because he's been one of the most significant players in probably Liverpool's history not just like recent years so I understand his frustration but you know I'll ask you the question if you wanted to make a point would you rather make it to the manager in private or out in the open what would you do?

2:32Julien Laurens:I think he should always be in private remember this is a guy when he was when he wanted a new contract last season and he was doing well he kept popping up in all those post match interviews and saying like hey I haven't heard from the club I'm done this but I would like to stay but you never know you don't know he might be my he was very vocal and and and when he wanted to be then when he was not doing well and Liverpool were not doing well we didn't hear anything from him and then suddenly because on the bench and he's not happy he comes out and at a time where the club is struggling the team is struggling where you really should be supportive more than you know in a very selfish way thinking about yourself then he comes out and drop that on them.

3:12Which of the players of his status at Liverpool have been on the bench for three games in a row this season? None. But do you remember

3:21Julien Laurens:any player of his calibre on the back of a, not that long ago he was receiving the player of the year for last season? Yeah, yeah, yeah. To come out and say things like that? No. I personally, like, I wouldn't want him to come out and say that in the mix zone, yeah? I wouldn't want him to do that. I think there's something to be said about trying to express those emotions in private and in fairness we don't know if he's said that in private as well I think the biggest thing for Liverpool now is like if they were off yesterday for example is how have they dealt with things today as Salah parks his car up at the training ground is the first thing he's got to do they're travelling to Milan today to play Inter they must have trained yesterday so after you say the words that you say after the game in fact they're getting on a team bus together afterwards like Salah's done that and he's decided in my mind that like he doesn't care anymore he's prepared to put this out into the open.

4:12Yeah. And whatever comes from it, he's ready for it. Maybe some of that's because he knows in a week he's going away.

4:16Julien Laurens:Yeah. Which it is. Yeah, maybe less than a week now. Who knows? But I understand his frustration in some ways just because, like I think we were speaking just before it happened. Yeah. I said, I bet he feels like he's being made a scapegoat. And then as if by magic, here comes the quote. Look at me, Salah's publicist. But I get it because. But nobody has said he was a scapegoat though. So that comes from his own head. No, I think so. I think let's, let's scoot back a month when Liverpool weren't doing great and people are having discussions about Salah needs to be dropped. You know what I mean?

4:49Yeah. So when he then ends up on the bench. Yeah. I think it's always important to not just like live and die by any particular moment to look at, you know, take a bit of a wider look back at things. And I think that's probably where it comes from because he won't be somebody that say not online or whatever. He would hear what people think. True. Because sometimes it's from prominent people who are on our, you know, airwaves and so on. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. So I think he, the club would have known or the players would have known something needs to change. And it's Salah's the one that's on the bench now for three games in a row.

5:19And as you mentioned, he's not come on for a single minute in two of those games. If you were him, how would you not think you're a scapegoat?

5:26Julien Laurens:True, but then, okay, so if he's a scapegoat, would you publicly say like he did? I wouldn't. As a player, in the players' union, where do you stand? Is it selfish? Is it unacceptable from him? I think I'm going to say something. I'm going to caveat this. Yeah. For me, I think it's selfish. Yeah. But he's also played to a higher level, more significant level than I've ever seen before in my time. Yeah. So I don't know how I would be thinking if I was in his exact situation because for him to be the best that he ever has been, has it been down to sort of like the team mindset? Probably not. It's been him driving himself as an individual.

6:02Yeah. So the team can go through what the team goes through, but he obviously has his place and his thoughts about himself and his situation. So personally, I'd be disappointed because ultimately it's another issue. I think it was described as airing out your dirty laundry. This is another situation that you have to deal with because Slott knows, say when he's doing his next press conference, not only does he have to talk about the game that's to come, the game that's been, but now you have to talk about Mo Salah and why he's on the bench. But what do you do next? Do you start Salah? Do you bench Salah?

6:30Do you drop Salah?

6:31Julien Laurens:That's a great question. Do you find Salah? I know. And Arnaz Slott will have a press conference on Monday evening. So we haven't heard from him yet on what Salah said. Like you said earlier, surely he will be asked about his opinion, his reaction. But before we go through the kind of Salah statement again, there's a few things I want to ask you about what he said. To answer the questions that you ask, if you were Arnaz Slott or Richard Hughes or Michael Edwards or the Liverpool hierarchy, the owners, whatever, However, Virgil van Dijk, your club captain, what's next then? Can he really play again for Liverpool?

7:08Julien Laurens:Personally, I don't think so. I think there's half-court in a week, so he was going to go anyway. There's the game against Inter Milan on Tuesday. There's a game against Brighton in the league at Anfield on Saturday. Is it a question of we won't see him, not even in the squad for those two games? Is he going to be on the bench? Is he going to start? Will they make peace? What do you think is going to happen? or what would you do for what if I was on a slot and this is just this is like coming from like a rigidly principled position yeah I don't think I can even have him training let alone be in the squad if he thinks that's the way that he needs to be just from yeah just for the message it sends because if he is in some ways unless he in fact he can come out and apologise but I still think there needs to be a level of discipline that comes with it sure because you're trying to set send a message and set the tone for everybody else and if you end up having a rule for one and rules for others, I think it kind of misses the point.

8:03And so for him to come out, Salah's come out and speak the way that he spoke and whether, you know, that's his perspective. He will be 100 % right in his perspective to him always. But the way in which you want the club to operate is where players will not do that if they feel that they should be playing games of football. Because if he does it and the next person does it and the next person does it, like are you bigger than the club in itself? So we're trapped in that sort of like mercury area now.

8:25Julien Laurens:And we know the answer is no. Yeah, he should be no. Yeah, he should be no. it should be now and I've just had a flashback actually how different obviously some of the words are different but how different is this to Ronaldo having an interview with Piers Morgan in 2022 just before he went to the World Cup with Portugal after him and United kind of parted ways yeah exactly yeah he's very similar he was still at United at the time yeah yeah he was and he'd been benched as well exactly so I think I don't think you can play him I think even if he apologises I think for me I think it'd probably be easier to say to him you can go to you can go to AFCON earlier if you need to you know like that's a in some ways it's a fortunate thing for Liverpool to have that there I think it's fortunate for Salah that he knows he's going away in seven days I think for Liverpool it's fortunate they can try and move away from this issue in such a short space of time as well it's probably a good thing that they're playing so quickly after too well you say that but it depends because they might get their teeth kicked in as well yeah true that's the problem but at least you move away a little bit from well I guess not you will always talk about he's so big you'll always talk about he's too big he's too big to ignore the only way you wouldn't talk about salaries if he was injured if he's available and he doesn't play that's always the storyline I think they will be they have to find him too financially I know money is nothing because he's the guy is so rich and makes so much money every week but from a club's point of view in terms of values that you have in terms of probably even some clauses in players contract about attitude, behaviour what you can say can't really say and we will go through the Salah statement now this is not from a club's point of view it's not acceptable you got it absolutely yeah if you want to if you want to set the club off on the right sort of footing you have to have standards in place which everybody adheres to yes you can have somebody that's a superstar as such but it doesn't mean that they pull in their own direction whenever they need to you know like to do it like I get it Salah's upset you know if I was in his position I'd probably be upset if I was of his status because I'd probably be upset as well.

10:28But Salah barely speaks.

10:30Julien Laurens:Yeah. So for him to come out and speak, what's the benefit? What is, from him saying what he said, who has benefited from it? Because it's not him. It's not the football club. No, but, well, you say it's not him. It's not him. But I think he wants to leave the club. Yeah, that's fine. But he's not left yet. No, but this is, for me, this is like, this is it. I'm off now. Otherwise, he would have not, I don't think he would have come out like this. Well, maybe. but unless unless he knows for a fact that he's got somewhere that he will go then it's an awkward return it is maybe because with with fan bases and we can even use a recent example of this Liverpool one like look at the way that some of them turned on Alexander-Arnold true so if you can do it to him why would they not do it to Salah on this Monday morning now that we're recording if there's going to be a discussion amongst Liverpool fans about what Salah said how many people will be prepared to support him because in some ways if you support him you support him more than the football club yeah yeah true true but then even if you don't if you kind of blame him if you blame him for it which is which is fair and I think yeah 90 % maybe of the Liverpool fans would do that I think he did it like he like he took a lot last season to get the new contract I think he came out in a mixed zone where he didn't have to stop because he didn't even play a minute like you said as well when we were preparing for the show at the end of that Leeds game when he didn't come on went to the away fans the away stand and were saying like goodbye as in like like Emiliano Martinez did at the end with Villa then he didn't get his move and then stayed however I do think that Salah's probably got a point where he's like this is it now I've had enough and I'm going do you think three games on the bench should be the breaking point for any player no but I think and this is we go back to his statement so a few of the big things he said was a lot of them by the way yeah The club's throwing me under the bus.

12:25Julien Laurens:They made me promises when I signed a contract, and clearly those promises were not hold or given. Do you want to go through these one by one? Yeah, let me recap them all for you, and then we'll go one by one. Okay. I used to have a relationship, a great relationship with the manager, and now I don't have a relationship with him at all. I don't know why. Yeah. Someone doesn't want me at the club anymore. I'm not the problem here. So I will ask you from a teammate's point of view, and Virgil van Dijk, especially, and then his own future you know I've told my mum to come to the Brighton game I don't know if I'm going to play but I'm going to make the most of it blah blah blah all of that let's start with like the club has thrown me under the bus he said did he say someone at the club someone yeah somebody yeah he's got back to the scapegoat yeah feeling the discussion this season in my opinion has been one whereby Salah by comparison to where he was last year has been nowhere near as good yeah and people have decided not decided but they've pondered whether he for the way he's playing was a problem but do you think he feels like the club should have protected him i.e.

13:30Julien Laurens:slot maybe another player maybe somebody higher than the slot I don't know because when they say when he says like they throw me on the bus I've been criticised they didn't defend me and then they put me on the bench and then they left me on the bench and then they left me on the bench again yeah yeah I think if they they're leaving on the bench thing I think is interesting and I don't know if we necessarily agree on this but like in what scenario in any game state would Salah not come on off the bench you know whether they're winning losing whatever he's one of the most experienced players so surely he's a value somewhere so Galatasaray which was the first time he benched him in the Champions League and I think a lot of people said okay he's a rest he hasn't done too well they've got a game in the Premier League before the weekend before then midweek Champions League then another game but Galatasaray they don't play well they're not very good with the ball and he stays on the bench the whole game and then he kind of like storms into the tunnel straight at the end to go back he's not used to it so already you could have thought then hmm weird because okay you can bench him but then you 1-0 down bring your best arguably your best player on to try to come back into the game right he didn't this game against Leeds like I said to you in our messages on Saturday I felt when they 2-0 up you don't really need to bring him on especially if you don't want to but he still could though yeah he could but clearly he doesn't want to yeah because he could have done it against West Ham as well yeah and that for me that's the thing that's interesting having seen this myself through my career if you don't want to bring somebody on don't put them on the bench yeah so because it's even more humiliating right exactly yeah and not every player will feel humiliated well I'll be honest every player in some way will feel humiliated by not getting any game time yeah you could maybe say a second choice goalkeeper doesn't but for other people you spent days preparing for this game and all you're doing is just basically being a cheerleader that's a humbling experience yeah and he's obviously not used to that and even more for him yeah exactly yeah he never does that he's someone that'll be walking off the pitch at the end clapping fans because he's essentially done so well so I don't understand why Slott would put him on the bench if he's not going to play him because it'd be very easy to just put him on four even if you put him on as a central striker put him on wherever because if I was a Leeds player and I saw Salah coming on I'd be concerned so yeah I don't understand that angle of it to be honest what about those promises thing because we hear that a lot from players and I'm not sure if when you sign a new contract it's have you ever like and I linked the promises with something that I've forgotten already when he said I don't need to earn my place in this team I should start every game because I've earned it already yeah that's big talk and it's a big BS too whoever you are maybe not Messi and Ronaldo but outside of them too I think to put some balance in that from his standpoint football at its core feels like a game where if you train well you'll be selected on the weekend in reality that's the case for maybe half the team but there's another half who will always play yeah and this is why we can have the stories about players for example who are terrible trainers but play really well in games you know so where he's coming from with that i think that's the type of thing which you should be able to think but not say yeah because the arrogance that comes across when you say that i agree is insane because ultimately it's like saying whoever else could play on the right it doesn't matter because i've done all this work i will always play me yeah and if he was playing week in week out and playing well and training really well and then as well it becomes the example I think that level of like mental complacency it's where you expect to play anyway I think that's that's somebody missing the edge as such yeah yeah and for him to come and say that again this is one of the reasons why I think the club has to punish him because if somebody will say that and say the next game he's playing after he said that yeah nah that sets the tone in a really really terrible way in my opinion so that links before slot he also said I'm not the problem here.

17:16Julien Laurens:I don't understand why I'm not the problem. Name names. If you're his teammates. Yes. And even if you're, you know, one of his closest in the dressing room and he will have some proper, but as you know, everybody's super close, but yeah. How do you react? I think firstly people, because you spend so much time with your teammates, you know, when someone's unhappy, they can't hide it. Yeah. They cannot hide it. Whether it's the way that they try and train in times that they turn up, are they leaving earlier? Are they looking a bit more disgusted? Are they quieter? Are they louder? So I think for him to say, I'm not the problem.

17:55Who's the problem then? I know. I think Slott was a bit guilty of this early in the season. Do you remember when he wouldn't name Fring Pong? Yes, yes. Against Crystal Palace. But just describe the person that was playing right back for him in the game making some mistakes. Yeah, I'm not going to name names. for the new signing who's the right back on the right I think he was in Germany last year but I'm not going to tell you who it is I think again all these words that Salah uses he's using them for a reason or whatever and he doesn't think he's the problem that's fair enough but no person will ever think they're the problem but then in the same breath after him saying that he has now become the problem because as a player when you come into training and you see him the next day are you going to carry on like everything's normal hey Mo did you have a good night last night you know are you ready to train should we go and do this no no all of a sudden there's this cloud that's over everything and whether it's this football inside this is the actual side now

18:50Julien Laurens:I don't know if you can and I put you on the spot so I'm sorry but had you had at any time in your career something a little bit similar or suddenly where that one player come the next day at training and it's a bit awkward in that dressing room it's a bit awkward with the manager because it's the elephant in the room and everybody knows you've said that but nobody's really addressing it you don't really talk about it so he's there but he's not really there and he's so weird in terms of controversies like that I've probably had it more so with managers or like there's a scouts midfielder I used to play with he would regularly be saying things which would cause issues to be honest but yeah nothing to somebody of that level not to somebody of that sort of like scale level of importance because like for us on this side it's a lot easier for us because they played the game you know what I mean he said what he said and then we'll just see them on Tuesday yeah you literally have to Salah got on the team bus with the team yeah to leave you know what I mean unless he's got a car whatever let's forget that no I don't think so so let's forget that then so you arrive in training on Sunday and you as a player know every word of what he said yeah and you're going to try and carry on like everything's normal whilst also adding in the fact that they've dropped more points yeah that is so awkward it's so awkward because only certain players because I think Salah's revealed where he holds himself by how he's described himself at Liverpool yeah so who's he going to listen to how many players at Liverpool could pull him to the side and say Mo you shouldn't have said that only Virgil only Virgil maybe maybe but Virgil might know what Salah's like if you do try and pull him to the side so it doesn't matter for you as a player what you think you could think what he's done is the worst thing on planet earth who's going to say anything the answer nobody nobody okay if you're slot then now going back to this I used to have a relationship a good relationship with the manager he doesn't even he says the manager he could have said yeah on the slot maybe maybe not but then he said now we've got no relationship whatsoever if you slot you call him in first thing in the office on Sunday morning and said listen because for me one of the key here from a Liverpool point of view is to act quickly as well because otherwise this kind of brew and then it makes it even more awkward more difficult to deal with you've got this intergame on Tuesday night and yeah if they lose they're still going to finish top eight.

21:11Julien Laurens:But if you get Spang 3-0 in Milan, then it adds even more to this kind of crisis situation that you have already a bit in a way. So I quickly, on Saturday night, I would have expected Slott, Hughes, Edwards, you know, whoever they want to have had a chat and said, this is what we're going to do. Sunday morning, Mo Salah comes into the training ground. There's a meeting with Slott, Michael Edwards, Richard Hughes, all the big deciders there. and they said, what you said is unacceptable. We don't understand it. We're going to find you a week wages, two week wages, a month wages, I don't know, whatever.

21:47Julien Laurens:We'll ask you to train on your own with a fitness coach. I'm just, I don't know, I'm just saying this possibility. But certainly act quickly. You're not going to travel to Milan. You're not going to be at the game against Brighton. If you want to go back to Egypt now, you can do whatever you want, but you're not part of this week of work for us. I think what you said is right. Like it has to be done swiftly because for every second where you're trying to act like everything's normal is sort of like the breaking of the foundations of the football club. I think in some ways they probably would have dealt with it on Saturday night.

22:16Yeah, probably even, yeah. Because there's no world where you say to Salah, I'll just come in on Sunday, you know, we'll have a light discussion then. You have to put things in motion, especially because you mentioned like the fact there's a game in three days. They're in the toughest part of the season now where there are games, games, games, games, games. You have to be getting ready for the next thing. This can't linger on. I wouldn't have been surprised if Salah was told to not come in on Sunday. Yeah. I think if anything, they would have discussed it on Saturday night with him extensively.

22:44Yeah. Because why do you need to wait to the Sunday morning to tell him that like the situation is a poor one. So if he's not been training, that wouldn't surprise me. And ultimately, like even if he was to have apologized on Sunday morning, I still think it's too late to where he can't be punished. He has to be punished anyway. Yeah, true. That's my take on that. And also I've got to say, the relationship thing.

23:03Julien Laurens:Yeah. Some of this, like Salah's an incredible player i don't know him as a person or whatever but there's lots of stuff which he's doing which most people i know wouldn't do yeah and one of those things if he says he's got a poor relationship with the manager one of the ways to deal with that is to go and try and speak to the manager more but it feels to me like there's a sense of pride that comes with well he's not picking me so i'm not going to speak to him yes because all of a sudden that's when a relationship can break down because it's not like they would have been texting each other be in communication all the time and so no that's true so if you think you've got poor relationship with someone ask yourself why is that is it as simple as well because he's not picking me anymore well if that's the case that's because of you, not necessarily because of him.

23:40Julien Laurens:So we agree there's no future at Liverpool for Mo Salah, right? After all of this. I don't know where he could go. Saudi Arabia seems the most obvious, especially on the money he's on. I think it needs to be like a massive apology, a massive apology for this to turn around. But also, would he be making a massive apology because he means it or because he's trying to save himself some money? And I think the Saudi Arabian thing, again, Beth was on FC the other day and she said one of the problems with Mo Salah, as is the case of lots of players to a certain extent through their careers when you're at the right place your age and your price doesn't matter but when you're in your mid-30s and you earn all the money that you're earning and you need to leave all of a sudden the places you can go to get smaller and smaller and smaller so I think maybe Saudi Arabia is going to be the right place for Salah and on top of this Liverpool drew 3-3 on field after being 2-0 up with 10 minutes to go and then 3-2 up with 2 minutes to go when it rains it pours doesn't it and football can be very very tough you know we've seen some teams go from being really really good to like having some of these like mini crises and so on but it's the nature of some of these defeats and I think this is the same thing I said with City last year when you're down as a team the teams you play against are up because they believe they can get something from you if Liverpool were at their absolute best Leeds probably wouldn't have been throwing everything at them because it's like well what's the point but now people know that there's a weakness there there's a flaw some players aren't playing to their absolute best so don't give up until that final whistle's blown yeah I agree that was a bad result from Liverpool point of view credit to Leeds as well and Daniel Farker because that's the win against Chelsea and the draw against Liverpool I've got to say they were very very good against Man City in the second half they were very good in the second half where they came back to 2-2 and then obviously considered that like goals so credit to Leeds for that and for Liverpool as we've been saying between Mo Salah and the result things are really really bad and now it's Inter Milan in the Champions League on Tuesday night

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27:14Julien Laurens:We're undefeated. Lay's, the official sponsor of the FIFA World Cup 2026. On Friday afternoon, well, nightish, it was so long that I even lost track of when it was in the day. Was it Friday? We had the World Cup draw. Hey, 2026 World Cup draw. Yes, in the US, Mexico and Canada. I think we all waited. We were quite impatient for it because it's the start usually of that kind of World Cup cycle, really. Even if there's a good six months between that and the actual start of the competition, it still starts now. just a few of your opinions on some of the groups and the draw including the England group they will be in group L with Croatia Ghana and Panama Thomas Tuchel seems happy with it in a way I think a few people saw that as a decent group considering the top two will qualify directly and then eight of the best third out of twelve so eight out of twelve of the third teams will still qualify so you think England, Croatia and Ghana will finish top three and likely I would qualify but what did you make of it?

28:20No, I think they will be happy with that. It's not to say that the games will be easy as such but unfortunately you know yourself that you need to play well at World Cup to get through it. You can't just necessarily squeak away through it. I think the games the game of Croatia which is the first game. Yeah, they'll be playing very similar styles but I think England have the better players so I fancied them to be able to get a win there and then I think is it Panama that's the third game? Yes.

28:46Julien Laurens:Ghana second. Yeah. And the Ghana game will be interesting because there will be lots of eyes on that, especially domestically as well, you know. And it's a different type of game for England because the last time I think they played West African opponents was Senegal in the summer and they lost. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think that was the city ground. So it won't necessarily be... Yeah, or maybe a Fulham. Yeah, so it won't be easy for them but a team that's got aspirations of winning a World Cup should look at that draw and say everything is going to be fine. Yeah. And they should be able to, for them, build momentum throughout the tournament from that standpoint.

29:17But as we've seen historically, teams that believe they can win and teams that actually do win. Come in two different stories, can't it?

29:22Julien Laurens:That's very true. England's pathway towards a potential final is in the draw, in the side of the draw that they are, could have Brazil, could have Portugal, could have Spain, you know, through it, which might not be easy. They could have, I think, potentially maybe Germany in the last 16 or something like that. So it could be tricky. The USA, Marcel Pochettino, who's behind you, Ned, drew Paraguay, Australia, and the playoff C of the UEFA playoffs, if you want. So potentially Turkey is the biggest country in there. Again, they seem very happy with that. Yeah, isn't it true that Australia and Paraguay have also played the US in recent weeks as well?

30:04Julien Laurens:Yes, in friendlies, yeah. And USA 1. And Turkey too. Yeah, and USA 1 as well. So this to me is like the definition of what could be a trap, you know? You know, we've seen this before. we've beaten them everything's going to be fine and they'll obviously have really good like following especially on the West Coast where they'll be but it is going to be tough and I think people will sense that and I think for me the way that a World Cup goes especially if you're going to be hosting it yourself you get a lot more casual fans coming across and paying attention but where do they believe that the USA are in terms of their position within world football because these games against Australia Paraguay and potentially Turkey for example nobody's really going to know the in and outs of why those will be tricky games that's true but if they start winning yeah exactly and if they start winning they'll have a win yeah if you start winning but all those games I think if they're to win them they'll be hard fought there'll be no games which are easy which for some might be difficult to understand but they'll take that they'll see that and finally like Pochettino and those others can start beginning to prepare that path because for me hosting is great but not having competitive games for a long period of time it's an issue isn't it you know whereas other people are like fighting for their lives on a week to week no not we come on on a month basis in these games well they know now they know their path you can almost bring out that big bracket the wall the poster on your wall start dreaming of your national team doing well and I think the USA will be well equipped to get out of that group but still you need to play well and sort of deal that pressure as well there's a lot there's other really interesting games that the draw has thrown to us oh really tell me which ones I mean there's obviously the Mbappé Erling Haaland clash between France and Norway in Group I which should be fun there's a Brazil Morocco in the Scotland group, group C, with IET as well, but that Brazil-Morocco game should be fun.

31:52Julien Laurens:There's the Germany group in group E, you know, with Ecuador and Ivory Coast and Curacao, which should be interesting. If Italy do qualify, they will go with the Switzerland game, in the Switzerland group, for example. I think Argentina had a decent group with Austria, for example, but yeah I think there's some really interesting games coming up in the group and as we know the real World Cup really will start from the last 32 games yeah it will yeah I think this tournament is going to be it's going to be interesting it's going to be a test just because it's so many games now whereas previously you kind of felt like things would accelerate very very quickly like it's 104 games I think we'll probably watch all of them yeah we will that's a lot of football there's a lot of football and who would you say is going to be the biggest disappointment in terms of big nations maybe that would be considered to be getting into the last like four or eight I don't know I think nobody is going to drop out in the group stage from the big countries yeah I don't think so I can't see it not with so many people not with so many teams qualifying for the last 32 do you think to get through as a best third place team you need to get like four points I think three might be enough really yeah definitely So a win, if you have one of the weaker side in your group, then a win against them.

33:14Julien Laurens:And then I think you're almost there. Okay. And just before we finish, I tried to find Nigeria in this draw. Do they have maybe a special draw later? Listen, man. What I will say is that... I was just scrolling and could not find Nigeria anywhere. As I said on the show the other day, Nigeria, I think it's Venezuela. I think Trinidad. Yes. possibly Jamaica if they don't make it shout out to Alexis I think they're in pot five so there's going to be another draw another draw that comes after this a special special special draw for all the teams that everybody loves because I know being from Nigeria that everyone in Africa loves Nigerians they've made that very very clear over the last few weeks nobody's too disappointed nobody I had a I was in Paris sorry just quick story I was in Paris for the Women's Champions League the other day and I walked into a cafe and a woman was there and she said, oh, where are you from?

34:11I said, oh, you know, Manchester. And so I said, no, no, no, where are you from? I said, I'm from Nigeria. She says, oh, it's a shame. I said, shame, what do you mean? They said, you didn't qualify for the World Cup, but I'm from Haiti. And yeah, we're going. But you know, it's okay. Maybe next time she said. Even in Paris, it's from you. Complete stranger. Not just me. Haitian. Complete Haitian stranger. Took me to pieces. You got to eat it. That's the way it is.