Gab & Juls Show: Is time up for Slegers at Arsenal?

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25:55Never watched soccer before? Perfect. Think a corner kick is a karate move? Sure, why not? Prefer sports where players can use their hands? Me too. Just here for the snacks? Now we're talking. So grab a bag of Lay's and jump on the bandwagon. We're undefeated. Lay's, the official sponsor of the FIFA World Cup 2026. All right, enough Women's Champions League. How about some quick hits? Let's go, Gab. Ruben Amorim celebrated one year since his first match in charge as manager of Manchester United on Tuesday. Jules, you and I celebrated with a special ceremony back in his hometown. Now let's play teacher and give him a grade.

26:40Julien Laurens:I don't know. I mean, last season was pretty bad. Obviously, as we know, this is a bit better now, this season, things are a little bit improving and clicking. Some of the new signing, well, one especially in Banan Bomo making a difference. I would go, I don't want to be too harsh because I like Ruben Amorim and I can see the improvement in the love aspects of United's game overall, so collectively. I give him a B -. B - probably sounds around right when you consider the entire body of work. One big question mark, I would have is how much of the signings were driven by the club and the club's priorities and how many were driven by him.

27:23If we say that part of your job as a manager is to get them to sign new players you need and want, then for me, there's no excuse for not signing a central midfielder. All that said, the results are improving. And what I like is many of the players in defense and obviously out wide are players he inherited and he taught to play his

27:42Julien Laurens:system so he gets points for that for me more united gab burley defender axel tronzibe suing them for more than a million pounds yeah he's saying that it was he suffered a bad bad injury in 2020 when he was on the club's books and he said he was misdiagnosed he was out i think until 2022 something like that jules you're medically adjacent much more than me um the reality is this is not a science there's judgment and sometimes judgment goes wrong yeah and i think a lot of players have gone through this not united but everywhere really where a bad diagnosis can keep you out for much more much longer it used to be the metatarsal a lot where doctors didn't recognize the injury like they should uh so he's not the first one he's probably unfortunately not the last one either i don't know this is the first time though i hear of this kind of of uh suing a club for that so good luck to him i don't know he was got to clear his mind whether they're saying it was negligence, whether they're simply saying, well, you put in good faith, but I still lost money.

28:44Yeah. I don't quite know the mechanism there. But football is everywhere. You're mad if you just, if, let the club doctor see you. Go get, this is your career, go get second, third, fourth opinions. Yeah. And I think clubs should encourage that as well. United of the present, United of the past, Eric Ten Hag has reportedly turned down the chance of returning to Ajax following the sacking of Johnny Heitinga.

29:08Julien Laurens:Yeah, there was a lot of optimism in Amsterdam at the club that he would come back. I mean, they met him before even Heitinger was sacked. So I think they were quite positive. But clearly, that was not part of his plans. Maybe he doesn't want to go back. Maybe, you know, that second time round is never as good as the first time, maybe. Or he's got a better project than this Ajax team that is in a very difficult situation. Sure, after his wild success at Bayer Leverkusen, people are undoubtedly queuing up together. I bet you there's a portion of Dutch fans who's saying like, no, the last time was special.

29:44I'm glad he didn't come back. Maybe. It's not the same guy. Yeah, maybe.

29:47Julien Laurens:On Monday, we told you about Leo Messi's Instagram video and photo of him wandering around the Camp Nou inside a new stadium. Barcelona president, John Laporta, said that the club didn't know anything about it. Yeah. I don't know. If you look closely, I wonder if Laporta's nose gets a little bit longer. so he would have us believe so he stopped there I think they're on their way to Alicante or something or he's getting up with his national team teammates you know Messi and whatever professional camera crew filmed it no yeah finally it was Rodrigo de Paul oh there you go the crew of them yeah okay they just show up at the camp now which is a construction site right now they wander inside presumably there's still security or whatever and yeah they don't recognize them even though Messi's messy if the Polis dress funny.

30:36They just let them in. Because it's Messi. Nobody thinks to alert the club.

30:41Julien Laurens:Well, I guess they let them in and then they told the club. I don't know what I thought I was saying. I mean, if they knew about it, what would not say? We knew about it. So I would want to believe them if they said, we didn't know he did this on his own. Mr. Spoilsport, but had to be a bit realistic. He said it's obviously unrealistic for him to come back as a player at this time, blah, blah, blah. We'll see. It's a good story. I like to think that it's a purely emotional thing. I think it's weird that you could just wander into it without anybody knowing just letting him in like that. That seems slightly odd.

31:14Tension continues to rise between the Spanish FFA and Lamin Jamal's club Barcelona. He was called out for the qualifiers against Georgia and Turkey. Then he was sent home after undergoing a procedure for his groin issues, which the Spanish FFA claimed they didn't know about, so they were angry and they blamed the club for lack of communication. I mean I think this is easy

31:35Julien Laurens:sorted out if you speak to each other if you call each other if there's actually a discussion which there's not because they don't like each other it's not the first time we've seen this argument it was in September already and in October already in all those international breaks Flick was not happy with De La Fuente who was not happy with Flick it's like playground stuff and at the end of the day all they should care about is Lamine's fitness and health and that's the only thing that matters Whether he plays against Turkey, Georgia or not, it doesn't matter so much. They will qualify anyway. So this should be the only thing to think about.

32:10Yeah, and this is a serious letdown from both sides. And I'm sorry, most of the time, actually, blame doesn't apply equally. I think it definitely does here. Because this person, not just a young man who's tremendously talented footballer, he's also obviously a major asset for both Barcelona and the Spanish Afe for the next 15 years. the fact that you guys can put your egos aside to talk to each other talk to laminya mal talk to laminya mal's mom and say what are we doing how are you physically let's share the medical data so that we're not embarrassed if you undergo a procedure that we don't know about and by the same token if you make a deal say not to start him in both games like they did last time around but so infuriated hansi flick in barcelona then you stick to that deal but this is this is just stuff that he doesn't need.

32:59He's got enough other stuff going on in his life.

33:01Julien Laurens:And staying with Spain, Gabi, private equity group Apollo have acquired a majority stake in Atletico Madrid with a valuation of between 2 and 2.5 billion euros. Well, this is a really, really big deal because this means, this puts Atletico Madrid's valuation on a par with that of Chelsea when Chelsea were bought back in 2022. And that would be the highest valuation of any football club, any deal that's actually gone through, right? Not like these sort of imaginary eight billion, five billion matches United, whatever. Obviously, when Ratcliffe bought his slice of the club at United, that put the valuation higher, but he didn't actually acquire control of the club.

33:43I think it's a big deal because Atletico Madrid are the biggest club in Spain that you can actually acquire because you can't acquire Barcelona or Real Madrid or Rosasuna or Atletico Bilbao in case you're wondering. and it begs a question can they do a better job at running Atletico Madrid, commercializing Atletico Madrid and turning them into an actual threat to Barcelona and Real Madrid on a consistent basis I think this is a huge gamble in the current environment we'll see what happens but I can guarantee you Apollo's plan isn't like oh look we've put in all this money now we're going to go and buy Laminya Mall in Erling Haaland No, no, that's not the plan.

34:24The question is, can you raise the profile at the level of Real Madrid and Barcelona? Those legacy clubs, for reasons that even go beyond football, are so big, I don't know. I think it's going to be really, really difficult. Thomas Tuchel says he knows eight of his starting 11 at the World Cup. Shall we guess? And I have to say, I will let you guess, but I was looking at this and I said, okay, six I'm pretty sure about, not eight of the starting 11. What do you think?

34:47Julien Laurens:Yeah, I think the only three positions really is right back, left back, and that number 10 position that we will also talk in the next quick hit. Really? So you think Elliot Anderson on 100 %? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right now, yeah. I don't think there's a better... And you don't think Gay he dislodges Kansa? Oh, no, no. I think he's Stones and Gay. Stones and Gay, okay. Yeah, yeah. So right back could be Kansa, could be Liveramento, could be Trent. Could be James, could be Rich James. Of course, yeah. Left back could be a right footer. So it could be, again, Liveramento or Rich James or maybe Shaw under the 10 could be Parmels could be Bellingham Gordon Gordon yeah Gordon's 100 % Kane obviously Rice Anderson Pickford or Stones if he's not fair but I think Stones and Gehi probably the favorite too which is good I think to have 8 it's good if that's in his mind I'm sure he reserves the right to change it as it goes on and blah blah blah yeah and Tuchel also says that Harry Kane Jude Bellingham and Phil Foden cannot play together in the same team.

35:51Julien Laurens:Gab, is it a clever thing to say? No, it's a stupid thing to say. And look, Tuchel's asked so many questions, eventually you're going to let things slip. But you should never say that these three can't play together because you don't know what the future holds. You open a can of worms now. Who should he pick? Obviously, one of them is Harry Kane. So then you create a Bellingham-Foden duality. I think the moment he says it, he's probably aware, oh, I shouldn't have said that because they're going to run and run and run and break balls with this. The reality is, of course, they can both play. What if Saka gets injured?

36:20What if Gordon gets injured? Maybe one of these guys plays wide. What if I change the formation? There's 101 things. And then what you don't want is some dork popping up like, oh, but you said they couldn't play together. No, like, obviously, there would be a balance issue. Just give it the same cliche. People always go, well, every team has to have balance. And maybe it would be hard to keep the same balance, but we would work on it. And I'm not ruling anything out. It's all you got to say. And he knows it. Magic Mike Mignan is out of contract in the summer and now he's being linked with Juventus.

36:50Jules, this makes little sense to me. Is it just a Damien Kamali thing?

36:54Julien Laurens:Well, unless you're not happy with Di Gregorio, there's no reason, I think, to go and give Magic Mike as good as he is and as much as we love him, like a big last contract as a free agent. So I still think he would want to come to England and play in the Premier League, which is something I've wanted to do for a long time. I don't know if there would be a club there ready to welcome him. But it'd be very interesting to see because he's not going to extend. He nearly came to Chelsea over the summer. In the end, the difference was, I'm told, two and a half million euros. Robert Sanchez has been doing okay.

37:27And obviously with his age, he would have been an exception to the Chelsea process. I just don't know what teams in London are looking for. Yeah, that's it.

37:38Julien Laurens:Meanwhile, guys, bookies are not giving even odds on Antonio Conte no longer being the Napoli manager after January the 6th. This really surprised me. Now, obviously, we told you about all his negativity after the game at the weekend, like, we're not a team, it's obviously my fault, I haven't built the chemistry, blah, blah, blah. But the fact that, yeah, bookies always kind of have a sense of knowing something and that we pay attention to them sometimes. But the fact that the odds have just crashed, I mean, somewhere it's actually odds-on that he might be gone by January 6th. I find absolutely remarkable.

38:13If his goal was to go and, like, scare everybody, then he might walk out. And so, therefore, they need to make adjustments, give him more power, or somehow motivate the players. Well, yeah, people are paying attention now, Antonio. But now it's up to you. L 'Equipe report that Didier Deschamps is being pursued by El Itihad for a role post-World Cup. Jules, why does he need to move to Saudi?

38:36Julien Laurens:Does he want to catch up with his friend Benzema? Oh, no, he doesn't want to. He doesn't need to move to Saudi. He's just one of the clubs that are interested in him after the World Cup. What if he runs into Karim Benzema? That's his club. Yeah, no, I know. So Benzema's going to stay? Well, he's out of contract, so I don't know what's going to happen with Karim after the end of this season. But they haven't made up and become friends, or have they? I know that I was told, no. I don't think they've spoken since the Qatar World Cup and what happened there. So it would be, but it's just the first name that we know has made an approach to Deshaun to hire him after the World Cup so I don't know if there'll be others at his age I still think he's got an interesting CV I think he's a really good coach in his style obviously so I guess we'll have to see where he goes after but he said I'm free I can choose whatever I want I would have plenty of options I don't see how this should have any appeal for him for the simple I don't think he has after what 10 years of coaching a national team where, you know, you get the time in between off, that you don't have the week in, week out pressure.

39:42At his age, nothing to prove. He doesn't need more money. 12 years, come on. Yeah, yeah.

39:48Julien Laurens:After the 300 plus referees, more than a thousand players have been suspended in Turkey amongst the wide-ranging investigation into betting accounts. Gab, what's going on? So, I spoke to some people in Turkey because so far all we've heard of are these official releases from the Turkish prosecutors. And if you remember, these many referees and these many players suspended. And then you look a little bit further. First of all, these are registered players. These are not professional footballers. There's a lot of, or some of them are, but it's a real minority. It's one guy, Galatasaray El Mali, Aaron El Mani.

40:22There's a couple of guys that besieged us. But when you look closer, you realize this seems to be an activist prosecutor and there's so many people who are pushing back on this. So for example, a lot of the referees who refereed in the third flight that was sponsored by a bookmaker and the bookmaker showed the games live, they got a free account from the bookmaker. And he said, yeah, so we watch the games in the league where we're refereeing. We can't actually make any bets. There's also question marks. The two guys at Besiktas say it's not them and they were legally signed up. So their suspension's already been revoked.

40:56There's so many questions about this. It seems like they threw like a giant net and people aren't, in certainly Western media, we're not following this up. So I think people should, because this is way overstated. As you know, managing maintenance, repair, and operations is never easy. But for the ones who always rise to the challenge, Grainger 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. 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 in protecting both your people and your facilities.

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42:06Remember the League Cup quarterfinal fiasco? Arsenal and Crystal Palace have been forced to agree to move their games from Sunday, December 21st to Saturday, December 20th at 8 o 'clock in the evening, no less. So they can play their cup game on December 23rd. That means Palace will take the pitch on Saturday, 48 hours after playing a conference league game on Thursday. So much for all that yak, yak, yak about player welfare.

42:31Julien Laurens:I realize I'm absolutely a mess. I don't know why you could not play this in January at some point. But this is ridiculous. I'm not even sure what Palace agreed to be fair. I don't know what's, I guess it's the best of the worst, really, in terms of decisions. Short time between the Conference League, where I guess they play a team that is not as strong as a Premier League team. So you can play your B team very much, or kids if you want. I think Arsenal are better than Koops. not so much for that but certainly for the Premier League game that you have on December 20th really to Leeds yeah so Everton for Arsenal and Leeds for Palace you do that and you basically sacrifice your Conference League game they probably will be qualified by then anyway or they should certainly so you can play you all under 21 team if you want and then be ready for the two games that follow but it's no ideal it's really no ideal I'll let you answer this because you know what I'm going to say that this competition is a joke and a freak show and it should be eliminated.

43:35The problem. Yeah.

43:36Julien Laurens:FIFPRO, the Presbyterian Union here in England have reiterated that they will take legal action if the Premier League introduced anchoring and they said that some clubs will too, Gab. Yeah, so anchoring for those who don't remember is basically you can only spend up to five or five and a half times exact multiples TBD on the amount of money earned by the lowest earning club in the Premier League by TV money. So, right now it's about$100,$110 million. So, that would cap it at $500 million or$550 odd million. And that would include wages, spending on agent fees, spending on coaches, and of course, our friend, amortization.

44:21I was wondering, why are the players' union against it? You know, why both FIFBRO and, of course, the PFA here in England. And they think it's a slippery slope. Not so much the Premier League, because obviously there's still a lot of money and so on. So if they do it, then the championship and EFL teams might feel empowered to do it, and then it becomes effectively like a salary cap, and their guys further down the food chain will miss out. I don't know. Personally, at some point, I think you've got to pay the piper, and all these clubs are losing enormous amounts of money, and you have to make the sport viable.

44:58Is there a way to do it? Problem is, they're losing money further down the table too. So I can understand, they're doing their job as a union. Equally, you can't run businesses as a loss forever. Anyway, November 21st is the vote. The relationship between Karim Adeyemi and Niko Kovac remains dicey at Perseid Dortmund Jewel. So inevitably, he's linked with a move to Manchester United in general

45:20Julien Laurens:who play with Wings, as we know. A lot of emphasis on their Wings play. So for the Eamines is perfect. He's played a little more central, to be fair, this year. Come on. Yeah, you're not. Wait, sorry. Is this guy like one of the most self-destruct? He was playing better this year. He was a bit more consistent. He hasn't started, I think, any of the last two games. More players and union stuff. Gab, for you, FIFA held a round of talks with what they say are players' representatives in Morocco. FIFA, the international players' union, didn't like it. Why, because they were not invited? kids uh no well so basically i think what they contend and we saw a little some of this in new york during the club world cup is they meet with these people who are either former uh player union representatives some are some are current players some are former players they say oh no we want the players voices to be heard what people are saying is wait we're the players union not these other guys and you can't negotiate things with the other guys you come and negotiate them uh with us in the end the outcome they all say there's positive things a three-week break at least 72 hours between games take that league cup um the outcome is the same but it delegitimizes fifa who for better or worse is the association of player unions in i don't know how many countries but it's basically all of the important ones except for germany um so it's it's a bizarre situation I don't think this is good behavior from FIFA.

46:48If you're going to negotiate, just negotiate with these guys. But I think maybe they're saying, well, you guys are no more important than these other people. And we can make the rules ourselves. The Rob Edwards deal to Wolves is finally done, Jules. Middlesbrough are still angry, but they'll get three billion pounds in compensation.

47:04Julien Laurens:Yeah, and Rob Edwards gets to go back home to Wolverhampton, obviously, where the family lives, where he's from, where he played, where he coached before. So all that story that we told you already on Monday, he's got a hell of a challenge in the Premier League, obviously, to keep them up. It's a three and a half year deal. So even if they go down, you would think that they would trust him to try to bring the team back up. So let's see. It just won't be easy for him. That's for sure. This is a bad look. Before I repeat it, you should not be allowed to change clubs during the season.

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48:30Julien Laurens:Game theaters July 10th. Rated PG. Parental guidance suggested. As predicted on Monday, Ivan Juric was sacked as the Atalanta boss. And here comes Raffaele Palladino. Yeah, different. I think they might move away from the 3-4-2-1 or 3-4-3, whatever you want to call it. But I think what you have with Palladino is you have an attacking mindset. I think you showed that in his previous outings at Fiorentina and at Monza. And they certainly have the attacking players. It's a roll of the dice. And I think it means you are moving away definitively from the Gasparini era. Yeah, Ivan Joric was supposed to be just like an uglier Gasparini with glasses, and his football was a lot uglier too.

49:10Celtic continue their manager, Hans Jules. You know, we can get a bandid eight here, right? You've got Bodo Glimps, Shetil Knudsen, who apparently is close to going out of contract. We're having to bring his plastic pitch with him. Ivan Joric. Ibsch's Kieran McKenna, who, yeah, I think he's turned down bigger jobs, but who knows? Bering virus is Robbie Keane, who's also, of course, played for Celtic. I love Robbie Keane I love the guts to go abroad and do well in his one titles and most intriguingly though Wilfried Nancy he's at the Columbus Crew he was at Montreal before that yeah yeah with Cherry he plays a completely different brand of football

49:52Julien Laurens:yeah but I guess there's a lot of intensity in all those four managers in the way they play I would love Wilfried to get that job I think he deserves a shot in European football He's done really well, obviously, in MLS, won the title, played some really good stuff. For that, we said, I think, in the past, why is he still above the glim, considering the great job he's been doing there? I think McKenna has higher ambition than Celtic, no offense to Celtic. And for Robbie Keane, on top of being a club legend, in a way, I think he's also earned a shot at a bigger league than Israel, Israel, where it was before with Maccabi, and now Hungary with Frank Varos.

50:34Julien Laurens:So I would be happy with any of those four if I was a Celtic fan. I'd be a lot happier with Robbie Keane or Wilfried Nancy, myself. And Robbie Keane, actually, I actually think there's a certain, you know, when you go to an interview for a job, there's a certain way you're judged based on the way you look and based on the way you talk. And I think Robbie Keane's had a tougher time getting jobs despite his background because of the way he talks and the way he looks. People make assumptions about him. I've had the privilege of spending time with him. He's a really sharp guy. He works extremely hard.

51:04He doesn't sit here and say, oh, look, I'm Robbie Keane. I don't need to work for this. Give me this. Give me that. I think he's learned so much when he's gone abroad.

51:11Julien Laurens:Yehailov Mordurik is reportedly involved in a film project in Ukraine. Gab, can you explain why is he still not playing football nearly a year after his last game? Well, because of the meldonium or whatever it was in his system. They asked WADA, the World Anti-Doping Agency, and he says, well, we're still waiting for a disciplinary decision in this case from the Football Association in England. You know how they say, like, justice delayed is justice denied? There's no justice for this guy. If he tested positive, put him on trial, say you tested positive. Yeah. I don't even know if he cares because he's collecting a paycheck for the past year, right, or some form of it.

51:50Yeah. I mean, I think Chelsea still have to pay him until they can say, oh no, it's your bad actions that caused us to be banned. He hasn't been banned yet. If I were Chelsea, I'd be angry as well. I need some clarity on this. But the story rumbles on. And again, this is one of those stories, like the 115 charges, like some of those other weirdo things that seem to go on forever and they can't talk about for legal reasons. This to me seems pretty open and shot. He tested positive and then you have a punishment for it. I don't know what the deal is here. And I hope this doesn't turn into another Paqueta case, by the way.

52:26Where like the Keystone called. Like I said, it feels like they used all the good lawyers on Manchester City. So I don't know if they have just like the dimwits dealing in this. I don't know. The Cav playoff for the World Cup spot takes place today. Yes. And Sunday, Jewel. In fact, by the time many of you listen to this, many of this will have been played. It's Nigeria against Gabon. Cameroon versus Congo for a spot in Sunday's final. Do you like this formula of all the matches taking place on neutral ground?

52:52Julien Laurens:Yeah, I like it a lot. I like it a lot. This is all in Morocco, played in Morocco. I like the fact that it's not in home and away ties, but just on one game. I think that brings more excitement to it, more pressure as well, especially for Nigeria and Cameroon, who are the two favorites in this. Although Gabon and Congo, DR Congo, played really well in the qualifiers. We pushed Senegal and Ibericom. Aaron Walsh of soccer, if I'm not mistaken, right? Yeah, exactly. Yeah, and obviously Pierre-Amico Bamayong and Denis Bonga and all of that. So you would say that Nigeria and Cameron should be the final.

53:26Julien Laurens:I think there's a lot of people in a calf that would want that to be the final. But I don't think this is a given that both of them will win those games easily and comfortably. So can't wait. One is an early kickoff on Thursday, as we record this. The other one is a little bit later. So we start with Nigeria and Gabon. So you should watch that if you can, because this should be really good. former Chelsea and Brazilian midfielder Oscar is set to retire after being diagnosed with heart abnormalities sorry Gab this is a story quite remarkable it's remarkable because by the time he was 24 he had 48 caps for Brazil which is a lot I mean that means you're on track to make 100 caps people forget Oscar was a dominant mid or he's a very good midfielder and he had a couple ups and downs at Chelsea in one of the top leagues.

54:19And then 2017, it's a big offer from China, as many other people did. At the time, yeah. And went over there. Except the difference with him was he stayed. He stayed for seven years.

54:29Julien Laurens:He liked it, yeah. He stayed through COVID. Yeah. In China. When everything shut down, he just returned to Sao Paulo. I'm glad you don't mess around if there's a heart issue, if there's any, you don't mess around with your health. That's true. So much focus in the media, like how much money he made in China, how much he's going to retire with. Like, that shouldn't be the focus here. The focus should be that, thank goodness, whatever issue he had has been dealt with precautionally. He made this decision. He got to go back to Sao Paulo and play half a season, which was just a bonus. And I wish him well.

55:03I don't think everybody has to follow the same route all the time of Europe, big club, big league. He proved what he did. He made a lifestyle choice, and it worked for him. Jules, when it comes to rap, I like almost nothing that came out after Tormoran. So I'll leave you to explain the feud between Kylian Mbappé and Orelsan, with whom I was thoroughly unfamiliar.

55:24Julien Laurens:Yeah, Orelsan is a very good French rapper, one of the best-selling artists in France. He's from Caen, in Normandy, the club that the Mbappé family bought two years ago now or something. Orelsan is a big Caen fan, a football fan. and in his latest album that came out on Monday night, I think it was, at the start of the week, there's a song where it's not easy to explain, but basically in the song, there's like a voice talking to Aurel San. We don't know exactly what it is. It's not Aurel San talking himself, but it's a voice. And the voice says to him, you're going to basically like gun down Kaur like the Mbappes.

56:12Julien Laurens:And to what Kylian reacted quite badly by saying, well, you can save your club whenever you want, Orelsan. And by the way, you were the one begging us to take you and give you some shares in the club for free because you've got no money. So Orelsan explained that it was a misunderstanding, that maybe Mbappé didn't understand that the song, it was not Orelsan talking, but like a voice. Anyway, it was a bit complicated. We asked Mbappe on Wednesday, and he said, like, I'm not interested. I've got nothing else to say. So I'm not even sure why this is in the quick hits, really. It shouldn't have been.

56:48Julien Laurens:I don't think there was much in it. But, yeah. But I think when Mbappe responds to a rap lyric. He was maybe a bit, he thought I was winding him up or something. Maybe Rolsan could have been a little clear, at least privately, to Mbappe before recording. Although I don't think there's any, there's no relationship between them two, really. So why does a well-san have no money if he's such a successful rapper? Yeah, I don't know. I don't know if he really has no money. That's why Mbappe definitely put on social media. I don't know. I don't know. It's a weird one. Gabby, good players have been seen wearing the Nike Mine 001 shoes during the downtime at St.

57:26Julien Laurens:George's. Supposedly, they have focused. Yeah. So supposedly these shoes, which I personally find hideous, they're not actually shoes you're supposed to work out in. you just wear them somehow i guess they stimulate blood flow positive energy um i think i'm gonna defer to tommy tuchel who i think got it 100 right he says i don't know much about these shoes they told me they can focus better in meetings if they were the shoes and i hope that they believe it maybe the most important thing is that they believe it i don't know the science behind it possibly because there is no science behind it if you believe something sponsor yeah it's a team sponsor.

58:05If you believe something helps you focus, you should walk around carrying a brick or a turd in your pocket. If you believe this is the secret that helps you focus, then it will work for you. Mind over matter, Julie. Yes. Alright, that brings us to an end, but we're going to be back on Monday because it's World Cup qualifying time from CAF to the Asian Football Conference to UEFA. The picture will become that little bit clearer. Until then, love the game, love your neighbor, love yourself.

58:40Turn it up. Storm has zero sugar and 200 milligrams of caffeine. So you can turn that workout up a notch. Good energy in, good energy out. Energy for life.