Gab & Juls Show: Italy to reach their first World Cup since 2014?

22:46Don Hutchison:I don't know, Gab. I mean, you could manage England and get them out of the group. It's not just boring. I just think it's boring. I mean, what he's done has been quite good. Scoring three goals a game, never conceding. You can't judge Thomas Tuchel on what he's going to be doing. He's been brought in to win England the World Cup. Let's see how he does then and see how the team do then. You can't judge him and say, like, flawless, like, no goals conceded, which is pretty good, pretty impressive. But I can't, like, lean on that and go, like, amazing, top draw, world-class manager. Do you like the way he's dealt with Bellingham?

23:16Don Hutchison:Absolutely, I do. Okay. So that's good. Tick. So tick that, the results you tick, yes? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm not being doom and gloom. I'm not being doom and gloom. I'm just saying, have they been tested? and they will not be tested until they play in the World Cup. So that's when you'll find out if you can take it a yard further than Southgate. I'm just going for Scotland. Japan stormed back from two goals down to beat Brazil Gab and a friendly. Your boy Carlo Ancelotti getting some stick? Yes, to the point that they had to remind everybody that he had to cut a contract through whatever it is.

23:53I think people should chill. It's a friendly game. They've traveled halfway around the world. They've played Korea. They look great against Korea. He makes up on a whole bunch of changes. I think the only holdovers were Vini, and then weirdly the two older central midfielders, Casemiro and Bruno Guimaraes. Casemiro doesn't even play that off every match to United.

24:18Don Hutchison:And it weren't really on him, was it? Because they played well first half, and then had 90 minutes where they just buckled the team, didn't they? Exactly, exactly. And he sort of said that's on the players, because them sort of 90 minutes could lose your World Cup. Yeah, and I think for these players who played, you know, who are, you know, not assured of a spot, you know, Paqueta maybe more so, but then you look at how he tried the front four, Martinelli, who... I find Brazil very weird. It's weird. But just because I look at my, and I know I got all my old hat, and I see Zico in Adair and Socrates and all these boys, I'm going like, look at these lads.

24:53Don Hutchison:I don't know, it's just weird when I see these Brazilian boys playing, I'm like, just not the same, is it? No, it's not the same as 1982. I know. The world has moved on a little bit. I know, I know, I know. Dominic Salves-Slai's late equalizer means Portugal will have to wait to secure their automatic place in the World Cup. But Cristiano Ronaldo scores twice in the 2-2 draw, breaking the record for goals in World Cup qualifying, which apparently is a thing. I think it belonged to Carlos Ruiz. And taking his all-time international goal total to 143, which is pretty absurd. Amazingly. and he's like amazing I like I commentate on Saudi football and I still see him going at 40 I still see him banging him in still doing it for his country and we're old enough to remember him when he was a fleet footed winger who dribbled and did tricks he's reinvented himself he plays a completely different position in a different style yeah he's reinvented himself in Saudi to make sure you sign Shao Felix and Kingsley Coman and Sadio Mane for all those guys behind you to get him some goals but he's amazing though isn't he like how do you criticise him at 40 still being in the shape that he's in like total dedication The talent, you'll never lose the talent.

25:59What about playing center forward when you were a winger for the first? Is that not a big deal? No, I don't think it is. And the way he plays it, the way he uses the strength in his body? No, I think it's easier.

26:09Don Hutchison:I think it's easier. I think there's positions that you can go back in. I found it when I was a midfield player and you go back at center half or right back and you can see the full picture. If you're Cristiano Ronaldo now, what you do is, Gab, you just play the width of the 18-yard box. You don't track back. You don't run out wide. That's fine. but you also have to play with your back to goal which you haven't really done Yeah but he's never going to lose his first touch so that's something you don't lose and then if you've got the talent that he's got behind him the fascination for me is in a big game if he needs to be dropped as Roberto Martinez We saw that in Qatar we saw how that went Has he got the clout to drop him?

26:4347 goals behind Christine Sinclair's national goal scoring record

26:47Don Hutchison:He's amazing Spain one of the favourites Gab destroyed Bulgaria 4-0 Let me ask you about Samuel Amaroddon who I commented on in the Club World Cup in the summer He got his first start. Is he, or could be the traditional center forward they'd be missing? Yeah, so when we look at Spain, I think we get into this rut about how like, oh, look, so much passing, blah, blah, blah. They don't have a real number nine because, you know, some people still believe Morata wasn't a real number nine, even in his pump. And so they have Ollar Saba there, who obviously is a different profile. And here you have this guy who's big and strong.

27:18He certainly gives you a different dimension. And I think that's important. And I think not a coincidence, he played that midfield of Merino, Zubimendi, and Pedri, which we saw in the last game against Georgia, to see how he could do. And look, he played a half. He got five shots off, two shots on target. He's a handful. He's a handful. He gives you that other dimension if he continues to grow. Don, we're not done because we have more. Quick hits. Let's do it. Your boy, Nick Voltemart, a.k.a. Voldemort. Fire. Scores the only goal as Germany went away to Northern Ireland. Don, this got a little hairy in the end.

27:52Will Germany be okay?

27:54Don Hutchison:I mean, it got hairy. It was an unbelievable game. I mean, Northern Ireland pumped Germany the last half an hour of the game. I mean, honestly, it was a proper test for the Germans. But imagine Volta Mata in the air gap, like, rising about seven, eight feet in the air. And it's like a bullet's header right off his forehead, straight in the top corner. No, no, no. Just came off the top of his shoulder. Weird for a guy that's so tall and can jump who scores like goals off his shoulder. Because it's not the first one he scored this year. I think last year was just the one-headed goal all season long.

28:23It can get a little hairy because, okay, so next games are Slovakia at home. They're level on points with Slovakia. Next games are Slovakia at home against Northern Ireland. Germany are away to Luxembourg. You expect both teams to win.

28:38Don Hutchison:Yeah. And then it comes down to Germany against Slovakia in Germany. I think Germany will be fine. They could get tripped up. They could. They could. France can't, though. they'll have to wait a little bit longer to uncork the champagne they drew 2-2 against Iceland without Kylian yeah this wasn't great this wasn't great at all and look it's fine I mean they'll be okay we assume we saw Mateta leading the line got his goal Nkunku great goal great goal nice goal there they've got Ukraine at home coming up they'll be okay but Iceland they're pesky those guys Lionel Messi returns to Argentina starting up front with somebody named Jose Lopez, who is not a winning contestant for a place in the Argentine national team, but a 24 year old target man for Palmeiras in Brazil.

29:29He was making his debut. They beat up Puerto Rico in a friendly in Miami, 6-0. Don, the bookies only have them as fifth favorites. Are they underrating the world champions? I don't know. They have them behind Brazil.

29:42Don Hutchison:Yeah, I know, but when I look at Argentina, it's like, even though Messi's a genius, how long can he keep playing in a team that might have to carry him. How long can they carry Ottomendi at the back? I do look at them and I think as part of that team, I mean, this game was incredible. It was six, it should have been 16. I mean, Messi was on fire, but he had a proper free roll, but it's hard to judge them, isn't it, when they're playing Puerto Rico? No disrespect. Forget Messi, though. Look at that firepower. Did you just have Ballon d 'Or, Lautaro, and then the spider Alvarez up front? I mean, you add a lot of...

30:13I don't know.

30:14Don Hutchison:I don't know. I don't know. I'm not sold. I think there's bits about them that are brilliant, but there's other little bits where I think, can you win a World Cup with certain bits? Good for McAllister to get two after a slow start at Liverpool. Two good goals. Gab, the Premier League will vote on something called anchoring in November. What is it, considering I hate PSR? Well, it's going to replace PSR. Right. All right, so let me explain it to you. Basically, it's a form of salary cap. Yeah. Essentially, they're going to look at the football squad costs, and football squad costs are basically their player wages, coaching staff wages, amortization, and agent fees paid by each club.

30:55They're going to see, right, who is the lowest? So in the Premier League this year, you would assume it might be Burnley, maybe Brentford, whatever. And then they would say, okay, so you can only spend five times as much as the lowest team in the division. Right. So right now there would be four clubs who are in breach of it. I'm assuming, I don't know who they are, but I'm assuming it's probably, I'm a hazard to guess, the Cubs with a high wage bill. So, City, Chelsea, United, baby Arsenal. And you have to stay below that. And the argument against it is like, well, wait a minute, this puts us at a disadvantage towards clubs from other countries who can spend more money.

31:38It's got nothing to do with how much money you make. That seems messy, doesn't it?

31:42Don Hutchison:Seems all just, I don't know, just seems like a mess. Well, I thought you would like it because... I don't know because I don't understand it for a start. You do understand it. I need to get to know it to understand it. So what's it doing? It's stopped. So if I refer, because I keep going back to Newcastle and Villa. Funny that. No, I know. It's because the two teams that have qualified for the Champions League over the last sort of four or five years, in my opinion, seem to have been punished because you want them with fair wind to try and get closer to Liverpool, Man City, Arsenal, etc. So it feels as though, correct me if I'm wrong, it's not allowing those to try and get closer cities.

32:14Don Hutchison:It's bringing the Man Cities and the Arsenal closer to them. Yeah, look, put very simply, right, let's say the squad costs at the bottom, let's say are$100 million, right? Which I don't think is far off that. That would mean that anybody, I mean, you could, your maximum would be$500 million. So if Newcastle's squad costs right now are$300 million, they could spend an additional$200 million. This replaces PSR so they wouldn't be forced to make a profit. Or or they wouldn't have to stay within the PSR where you can only spend so much based on your revenue. So that's good. The flip side of this, though, is that financial sustainability rules are still in effect in Europe.

32:55So you have to comply with those as well. So that would probably hamstring those clubs. For me, all this is about is everybody, almost every big club, with the exception of Real Madrid and Bayern, historically loses money. Everybody does. And I think you've got some owners who are like, Yay, I'm a Man United fan. But I'm also running a business, and I don't want to keep losing money every single year. And I think this is a way to keep costs down. Unsurprisingly, the PFA, the Players' Union, is against it. I think some clubs like City are likely to be against it as well. So we'll see where this goes.

33:30But November 21st is the date, and I think they need two-thirds of the clubs, so at least 14 clubs, to vote in favor of it. Martin Utegaard will reportedly miss another six weeks for Arsenal. Don, we keep hearing about how deep Michael Arteta's squad is. How big a test is this for the deeper squad? Who's his replacement?

33:52Don Hutchison:Eberichie Eze. I think he'll step back in the midfield. My takeaway when I worked on that game. Yeah, different player, but I mean, he's still got a brilliant squad. My takeaway from that West Ham game when he got his injury, and it was a collision, I think it was Somerville at the time. And I remember saying, hopefully for Odegaard, it's just a bone-on-bone collision where in a couple of days' time, bone bruising, he could shake it off. Worst case scenario Would be your medial ligament Well that's the ligament That he's done So he's probably looking At a couple of months But you look at that squad And the three players Who started in midfield For Arsenal on the day Got replaced in game So Calafiore got replaced By Luis Skelly I looked at the bench And I thought This is the strongest bench Arsenal have ever had Luis Skelly's a comp I'm just not sure In that I think Woodard's really important Especially if Oh no he's a super player If Rice is there too I would like to see Jules has some doubts about whether that's as his best position.

34:44I would like to see Issa Nguyenieri being given at least the opportunity.

34:49Don Hutchison:See, I don't. I think Nguyenieri's a better player the higher up the pitch he goes. I look at Eza and think you can play literally anywhere. You can play wide left, you can play 10. He can drop a little bit deeper. Sweden, we talked about them earlier on. John Dahl-Thomerson's been sacked as Lani scores and Sweden lose a home game against Kosovo. One point from four games when you have Jokeres and Isak. That's not acceptable, is it? No, it's not. Shout out to Aslani, of course, who is kind of Italian. Yeah, it's not good. John Dal Tomasson was Danish. They didn't understand his tactics. He's got a lot of bad mouthing in the press.

35:24He's accused of playing 3-5-2 to shoehorn those two together. I think it's pretty simple. Gjokor has missed a whole bunch of training this summer because he was on strike. Isak, we obviously know his story. I think they're paying a penalty for that. JDT, though, one of the nice guys in football. Sticking with Sweden, your boy Graham Potter, last seen at West Ham, has volunteered his services. He's willing to offer a discount on his salary. Would he be a good choice? Bearing in mind, he started out as a no-name in Sweden and came up through the ranks.

35:48Don Hutchison:Yeah, he's done a good job at Ostersund's, didn't he? I think he won a trophy with them, got them through the divisions. I think so. I think he's an intelligent guy. I think he's a good manager. I think some of the jobs, especially the West Ham job that he had, he's just on a heightened or nothing because the squad was left, that he was left, was very poor. I mean, granted, the style of football wasn't particularly good, but when you've got Jokeres and you've got ISAC, surely you can make that work. 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.

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37:01Don Hutchison:There's no place like Chrome Check responses set up required Compatibility and availability varies 18+. Gab Paratici is back as sporting director at Tottenham. Your thoughts? Yeah, he comes back alongside Johan Lange He served his ban obviously over the false accounting and stuff like that. But what blew me away, look, I knew this because I do this stuff for a living that he's been working all along for Spurs He's been helping on deals and whatever What he didn't expect, this is while he was banned was he even come out and say that He says Well, I've been working with Johan Vinay and Thomas Frank as a consultant for a number of months, and I look forward to returning to London.

37:44Glasgow Rangers are still without a manager. On Monday, we reported about Michael Carrick and whatever. Steven Jared reportedly turned them down, but now his odds, weirdly, have shortened. So it's always suggesting that maybe people, there's something bookies know that other people don't know.

38:02Don Hutchison:Maybe Stevie's... Look, you're the biggest Rangers fan. Well, maybe Stevie's in this room right now. Also, because I don't know. Well, I know a producer who's filling in today for Freddie Mark. He's Irish. So I'm a hazarded guess. He's not a Rangers fan. So it's all you here. All right. Well, maybe Stevie's compensation from Saudi's been sorted. Maybe his Rangers have put up some of the money. I don't know. I suggest if you're Rangers now, Derek McInnes has done a good job, by the way, who's still in the run and who's done a fantastic job at Hearts. I'm just at the point now where I think if you talk Glasgow Rangers and the size of that football club and you really want to be serious, go and get Rafa Benitez.

38:40Don Hutchison:Go and spend the money and go and get the best. Go and get an elite manager to make Rangers a proper football club again. That's my theory. Go and pay him. Go and pay whatever Rafa wants. You'll turn your club completely around. I was not expecting that. Exactly. You see? So you can go down the Derek McKinnis route because doing a fantastic job. but if you really want to be elite, if you're Rangers Football Club and you want to be back at the top table or close to it. While complying with PSO. Or anchoring, whatever it may be. Go and get Rafa. Go and spend the money. Be serious. Be a serious club.

39:14Don Hutchison:Instead of TVG. Well, yeah. I mean, how do you say no? Who stacks up better as a better manager? I'm a TVG fan, but come on. If you put TVG and Rafa at the table, it's Rafa. I wonder if you know something. I don't. I'm going to reveal something here. So a couple weeks ago, I was at the lounge at Heathrow's Terminal 5. Oh, who you see? Who you see? Ah. So I had a nice conversation with Rafa. Ooh. Simon Jordan. Nice. And, oh God, I'm blanking on his name. The guy who used to - Jim White? No, Jim White. Right. Yes. And guess where they were going? Go on. they were going to Chris Boyd has a men's mental health charity right they were all together so Chris Boyd used to play for Rangers yeah so maybe I'm adding I don't know for a fact that they were going to Glasgow your maths are quite good but yeah do you know something we know no I don't I'm just going along the lines if you want to be a proper football club go and get the best man for the job and the best manager out there would be Rafa there you go there you go sorry Stevie Hadjuride scores both goals as the United States beat Australia and a 2-1 win when Christian Pulisic limped off, Gabi, who's been on fire for Milan, they're not going to be happy, are they?

40:32No, and look, nobody's happy when somebody gets injured in a friendly. This fuels a whole other debate, which, I mean, I suppose you can pull a hamstring anytime. Yeah, yeah. This isn't a case where he's playing through injury and whatever. Yeah. So I don't think you can be hard on, you can criticize Pochettino for playing him.

40:51Don Hutchison:Yeah. But it is funny about how there is still a school of thought among some people in the US that blamed Pulisic for when he was recovering from his injury and not wanting to do the Gold Cup and whatever. And, you know, last night on the show, I think Ali said something along the lines of like, oh wait, so Pulisic is supposed to never play because we have to keep him fit for the World Cup. I just don't know how much you learn from friendlies. No, you can't. And you haven't got a crystal ball, have you? Because you could give Christian Pulisic an hour, he could score a couple of goals, could be great, pulls a hammy, it's like, What can you do if you poch?

41:26For Milan, the good news is you have a lot of players. Yeah. Just none of them are Christian Pulisic, but Rafael Leal, obviously closer to return, full fitness. Jimenez scored before the break. You've got Nkunku. You know, you've got dudes.

41:42Don Hutchison:You just mentioned Leal there, and I commented on the game when Allegri put him on. I don't know if you've seen the clip where he shouted to Leal, don't make me angry. And he missed two sitters, and the jacket came off. It was hilarious. He actually did make them angry. What are you up to, Gab? No, it's my question to you. Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry. Are you up to considering having a standalone group game to kick off the Champions League season involving the champions? So basically, we're at this year, since I believe Jules might have mentioned that Paris Saint-Germain won the Champions League.

42:13I'm not sure. Paris, the first game of the Champions League group stage, there would have been a standalone game to honour the champions, create some buzz, play that maybe a week before or whatever them against whoever their group opponents would be.

42:28Don Hutchison:I like it. You like it? I think so. Yeah, because I always think the season starts. That things up a little bit? I do always think when the season starts it starts properly when the Champions League gets underway. And if you've seen let's just take PSG for example and they played Real Madrid or Liverpool, whoever and it was like that game, come on we're off and running. Everyone would tune in. There's a Super Cup obviously that they play but because the Super Cup comes before and obviously this season was pretty extreme where Paris Saint-Germain treated it as like a pre-season, you know, or you could see they weren't fully fit.

42:58Don Hutchison:Yeah. But you'd watch it, right? If it was like the two top sides playing against each other to get it underway? Yeah, totally. Let's turn to Africa, Gab. As the group stages come to an end, Senegal, Abriko, South Africa, they've all qualified automatically as has Cape Verde. Quite a story. Yeah, I mean, obviously we need to name check the other South Africa despite the points penalty. They beat Rwanda 3-0. They're through. Senegal, we knew what was going to happen, beat Martina 4-0. And Ivory Coast, beating Kenya 3-0. Familiar names, superstars. I like underdog stories, but I also want the big boys to be there.

43:32Cape Verde is a completely different story. Just over half a million people. They did a really good job. Jules explained this a little bit. I mean, they beat Eswatini, who the artist formerly known as Swaziland, I believe, 3-0. They decided to dip into the diaspora of Cape Verdean, people of Cape Verdean descent, who've gone elsewhere, different European countries and whatnot, brought a lot of those guys back. This is a country of just over half a million people. As of right now, until Curaçao qualifies, and we'll see what happens there, but they would be the second smallest country to ever qualify for a World Cup.

44:08After, who was the smallest? Come on. Come on. I'll give you a hint. They're not very imaginative with their last names, and it's cold and they have volcanoes. I don't know, Cap.

44:21Don Hutchison:Iceland! Iceland, Iceland, Iceland, Iceland. The Times report that Roma are considering taking Joshua Zirkze on loan this January. Don, are you one of the haters who thinks he has no place at Manchester United whatsoever? No, I just think he's another player at Man United that's been, or his confidence has just been eroded, shot to bits. He's not played that well, but I think somewhere like Roma, he could go and play. probably a replacement and I'm not saying you know like for like but Dybala who's struggling with injuries maybe they think they can get something out of Xerxi coming short because they've got Dovbic they've got Ferguson they've got number nines that they can rely on Xerxi's something different he can bring them off the bench and he can do something wait let's see so Xerxi despite being big tall and strong Xerxi's big tall and strong certainly big I wouldn't have put him in that bracket he's certainly not somebody to play centre forward He's somebody who plays...

45:18Number 10. ...behind the two strikers, right? That's what I mean. And United spent all this money on Cunha and Mbumo. Well, they're better players. And Ahmad. They're better players. Yeah, all right. Then Xerxes. All right. All right. Okay, well, we'll see. I mean, I think he's actually... Do you know what? He'll go away. I'll tell you what. He is a more natural fit for that number 10 role at United. I mean, he's got other issues. He's only... He's not getting in that team. All right, no, that's fine. But I'm saying, I guess with no European football, you don't need him because obviously you have Ahmad there.

45:51It's also probably where Bruno Fernandes should be playing. Exactly. He's got to play midfield because nobody else can pass the ball. So, yeah. Yeah, a lot for United to sort through.

46:00Don Hutchison:Back to Africa, Gab. Your boys Nigeria made it through. Skin of their teeth. Oh, yeah. So this was drama, as he mentioned. They had to beat Benin. They also had to keep an eye because to go to the playoffs, which is what they've qualified for, and they're going to play Gabon. They had to get a better goal difference than Burkina Faso, and they made it because the only reason they made it is because Frank Onieka scored in injury time, which means they're one better. Prior to Frank Onieka, do you want to take a guess who scored a hat trick? Victor Oseman! The best is yet to come! That's right, Victor Oseman.

46:38You know what? It makes my skin crawl that we've talked about Giocharis and we had to talk about, we're going to talk about Sesco later and Cunha and all this stuff and Victor Oseman. He's amazing, man. He's amazing. It's just so completely absurd, people dropping 60, 70 million on these guys who frankly are the department store mannequins compared to him.

47:04Don Hutchison:I'm still in the camp. I'm distraught that Conte couldn't make Oseman and Lukaku work together. I know it's all like political and it's all like you want to leave if he's agent, this, that, and the other. But what a player, man. But yeah, the playoffs, by the way, really taste. You talk about Nigeria against Gabon. Gabon, who had the second highest points total, or had the highest points total of the playoff teams. That's one. And Democratic Republic of Congo against Cameroon. Can you imagine a World Cup without Cameroon? No. It's like a World Cup without Germany. Exactly. What do we hope? Turkey beat Georgia 4-1, gobble, gobble, which is as good an excuse as any to ask you the existential question.

47:43Which young starlet would you take? Arda Gouler or Kanan Yildiz? Yildiz. Ooh.

47:50Don Hutchison:I love Yildiz. I mean, I've heard people say he could be Del Piero. I mean, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. You know, that's levels. Two fantastic young players, but I love the way Yildiz plays. He can play anywhere. He's got a trick. He's got balance. He's got skill. I mean, they're both fantastic players, which I think it's one of them. It's like when you talk Messi and Ronaldo. Whichever one you want, I'll have the other one. Yeah, I'll tell you what. There's not many countries in the world that have got two number 10s of that age. Amazing. And of that quality. Saudi Arabia and Qatar have made it through to the World Cup, Gab.

48:24Don Hutchison:But UAE are furious. Yeah, they were extremely furious to the point that... So they played Qatar. They lost 2-1. And apparently, like, people started throwing objects. They started throwing sandals, throwing pelting things. They could get a points penalty. now. So the way they did it, Asian qualifying has not literally a billion, but close to it, uh, qualifying rounds. And so in the end they had to, uh, determine which two teams were going to go, uh, to the playoffs, which, which two teams are going to qualify automatically and, uh, which ones were going to play off against each other to get into the inter-confederation playoffs where you could play an African team or, or South Americans could play Bolivia or whatever.

49:09Right. And UAE are very angry because it was two groups of three. And Saudi and Qatar, first of all, they got to play last, which is a big advantage in a group of three. Secondly, they got to host because they played them all in the same place. So one was played in Saudi Arabia. The other one was played in Qatar. Saudi drew nil-nil with Iraq. They're through because they scored more goals. They have the same goal difference. Upshot of all this is Saudi and Qatar are there. Emirates and Iraq, they will play in the playoff, and then the winner gets to go into the inter-confederation playoffs. There is a lot of bad blood and a lot of conspiracy theories right now doing the rounds and a lot of it is fueled by the Emirates who feel they got screwed.

49:55Ballon d 'Or means golden ball, so let's talk golden boy. That's right. For those who don't know, and by the way, Jules absolutely loves I bet he does.

50:05Don Hutchison:I bet he loves this. I think he's a voter, actually. I think he's on the jury, which is maybe why he loves it. But basically, this award is given to the best under-21 player in Europe who plays in the top flight. And what I like about this award, you can only win it once. So don't give me this Laminya Mall. He won it last year. Don't give me this Jude Bellingham. He won it, I think, two years ago. Well, you can only win it once in its entirety. Only win it once, yes. So Laminya Mall, not eligible to win this award. That's bizarre. who you got? You have the list of candidates. I'm not going to reel them all.

50:37Don Hutchison:It's an amazing list. I mean, some of them I'm finding a stand and they're on that list. Like Rodrigo Mora, Nico Riley, love you, Oro. Well, Leonis, I mean, I know you had a good season last year. He's played one hour for Liverpool and he's on there. He didn't play very much last year either. Yeah. The two stand, I mean, there's a few standouts. I mean, Yield is obviously, but the two standouts to me are Desiree Douai and I think Khabarci at Barca. Khabarci to me seems, and I don't know this factually, but he seems like he's played the most games he seems like he's been very regular very consistent I don't know I mean Waniere he's not had a really wasn't great for Barcelona Waniere he had a good season last season I mean I think Louis Skelly I've not played this season Louis Skelly's been making a case for the season he had last year obviously not playing as much Esteval's on the list what a player Esteval I think has got to be one of the main candidates I think Dwayne's gonna win it because people favour like the Champions League and so on but this is my whole problem about the Ballon d 'Or it's like if you win the Champions League because you're going to win like this.

51:33Don Hutchison:And then look, Dwayne's been great since January. Just who's been the best player? Something got injured. Yeah, that would make it a lot more simple. I think Dwayne's got this, but Arda Gouler also in the mix, as well as Dean Heysen, who you don't seem to like. No, no, I like, but I mean, how's he on the list? Had a good season last year at Bournemouth. There's 15 players on the list. If Rodrigo Mora's on the list, you'll leave Dean Heysen. I know. Maybe that list needs to be shortened to about 10, then you go, ah, that's a great list. the Women's Champions League rumbles on Gab big wins for Barca and Chelsea yeah Barca with Eva Pajor of course she got injured they got a win away to Roma 4-0 Olympique Lyonnais or Lyonnais as now they've been rebranded they bounce back winning beating St.

52:19Poulton 3-0 and Chelsea hammering Paris FC not Paris Saint-Germain Paris FC 4-0 it's funny there seems to be a real imbalance in the women's game between the really big teams and everybody else. Barcelona, as you know, I'm just so impressed with what the women's team is doing.

52:38Don Hutchison:It's just like watching a different sport, isn't it, when you watch them? It is. It is. The Athletic surveyed 20 agents and asked them about the best and worst deals in the Premier League summer window. I know who the agents they surveyed pick because, and I've written it down here, don't look. Why are they asking agents? Well, who better than an agent to ask? You can ask a pundit. You could ask journalists. I'm about to ask you, and you're a pundit and an ex-player, but agents know the ins and outs of the deals, and agents know how much clubs have to spend. But you might have no clue about football.

53:13Don Hutchison:You might be savvy in your business sense and get a deal over the line, but you might not have a clue who's who. Okay. All right. So let's do this. Don Hutchinson versus The Athletic. Go on, then. Best deal of the summer transfer window. Don, in your view? In my view, it's Jack Grealish. Jack Grealish finished second. Second? He got 20 % of the vote. Right. The Athletic went, or the agents interviewed anonymously by the Athletic, went for Donnarumma, 25%. That just backs up my point about agents then, because who's had the better season so far? Jack Grealish or Donnarumma? What was the better deal?

53:50Don Hutchison:Well, Grealish, because it's a loan fee. He's not even signed. You've got a£100 million player on loan. What a deal that is. First of all, I don't think even his mom thinks that Grealish is a hundred million pound player. No, no, no, no. Factually, you've got a hundred million pound player on loan. What a deal. I'm surprised that we've argued this point, right? But Donnarumma's younger. Would you say Donnarumma is among the top ten in the world in his position? I don't think we're going on age anymore, are we? Are we not just going on the deal? Who got the best deal? Jack Grealish, Everton. So a year from now, Everton will presumably need to get...

54:28Don Hutchison:I'm not bothered about a year from now. Ask the agents in a year's time. All right, the worst deal of the transfer window. In your view. I mean, the worst deal. Yes, who squander their money in the worst possible way? I think Man Utd with Sheshko. When they had Hoyland for the same amount of money, why not invest a year's time into him and coach him? He cost more than Hoyland, actually. Well, one million pound more, something like that. Yeah. Because the knock-on effect is, you know, Bruno Fernandes is now playing out of position. He could have been one of the number 10s, and Buomo could have been your number nine.

55:06Do you know what I mean?

55:07Don Hutchison:So why do they need Sesko? I think Sesko has a tremendous update. He didn't have a good season last year, but he's got a tremendous upside. I think that was their thinking. But yes, the agents, the athletics agents agree with you. 30 % chose Sesco as the worst signing. 15 % chose James Trafford as the second worst. I think this is people being kind of stupid. That's very harsh. Yeah, I imagine. But I think what they get into is like, well, if you're going to sign Donnarumma, what was the point of spending all that money on Trafford? They probably didn't know they were going to get Donnarumma. That's the thing.

55:42Don Hutchison:They locked him up early. It's like Liverpool signing Isak and Eketike. It's still a ton of money to spend for a guy coming from the championship. But yeah, no, it's a fun talking point. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Inter Milan published their accounts and Gab, they set a new Serie A record. Yes, record revenue, 546 euros in revenue, eclipsing the mark held by Juventus when they got Cristiano Ronaldo. More important than that, and look, this revenue is down to the fact They got to the Champions League final and they played in the Club World Cup. What is really encouraging about this, not to nerd out on you, is two things.

56:22One is they made a profit of 35 million euros, which I think it's a kind of a sign of the time with these owners, Oaktree, they basically took over the club because they loaned money to the previous owner and then he wasn't able to pay it back. And that's how they took it over. So they're obviously going to run it as a business. It is a change for a club that's made loss after loss after loss every year. but what's nice is that they didn't really make a ton of money off of player trading which is always kind of using the magic of amortization to kind of not cook the books but let's say massage the books a little bit season the books if you will they did this because yeah they got that huge chunk of revenue we talked but their commercial side went up they pack a massive crowd at the San Siro every time they play they're essentially they're back to the bare bones of how a club should be making money and that's not something to be taken for granted in Serie A surely not something you would take for granted for Inter over the years so well done to Inter as a club Pepe Marotta and also Alessandro Antonello who's now left who's at Marseille former Premier League referee Mark Klattenberg aka Klatz talked about his worst ever officiating performance and it was one he said he really regrets it was in the Merseyside Derby oh that's a shock and you of course played for both clubs that's a shock in 2007 there was a game he sent off two Everton players Phil Neville and I think Tony Hibbert the right back denied them a penalty shock and in Liverpool sneakily came from behind with that very sneaky Dirk count to win 2-1 does it make you feel any better when referees apologize for no I mean he didn't say he was biased class you're a disgrace no no just for a bad performance

58:08Don Hutchison:listen I've got a similar story when Graham Paul... 18 years later, he apologised. Right, well, Graham Paul owes me one then because I think he put it in his book, so he sort of half apologised. Merseyside Derby, Goodison Park, nil-nil, five seconds to go, right? Sandov Esteveld's got a free kick. He kicks it, hits me on the backside, trickles over the line, and as it's going over the line, he blew for full time. Graham Paul blew for full time as the ball was on the line, going over the line, and he's blew for full time. And we've looked up the clock. And there was about 30, 40 seconds left on the main clock at Goodison.

58:43Don Hutchison:So he's put it in his book, Graham Powell. Class needs to do the same. I like your apology. You're a disgrace. Better late than never funny. Both incidents ended up hurting the blue half. Exactly. The People's Club. Exactly. The Toffee Men. Exactly. What's Donald Trump up to, Gab? He's raised the possibility of World Cup games being moved from their venues, despite FIFA saying it's an all clear. Yeah. So, basically, if you remember, this came up a couple weeks ago when he talked about, like, if he thinks a city's too dangerous, if it's too violent, he's going to move games out of that city, out of the World Cup venue.

59:25Some people at FIFA said, no, no, no, it's not your call. It's FIFA's decision to move games. Now, he said, he was talking in the context of Boston. He says the Boston mayor is not good. he says that parts of Boston have been invaded.

59:44And, you know, then they said, like, well, but it's FIFA's decision. He said, look, I would just call Johnny and say, let's move it to elsewhere, and he would do exactly what I say. He says about Johnny Fentino, he said he wouldn't love to do it, but he'd do it very easily. People are losing their minds over this. and look I just want to say this, we can't have it both ways we can't complain about FIFA bullying countries into getting their way and stuff like that like they apparently did in South Africa and in Qatar and so on and now the opposite thing it's still a country he's a democratically elected president

1:00:25Don Hutchison:is he not trying to do the right thing? is he just clumsy on what he's saying? if there is trouble in a city isn't he trying to look at the bigger picture and say well actually there is trouble Yeah, because I think the reality is that there's a lot of people who don't like him and say you're making up spurious reasons to send in the National Guard and whatever. That's their point. But I think fundamentally, I would hope that we agree the security of a venue has to address with the authorities there. Whether it's the president, whether it's the mayor, whether it's the police chief, hopefully they'll agree and say we want to keep people safe.

1:00:57But, you know, I think there's many reasons to go after Johnny Fantino if you're so inclined. I don't think this is one of them, personally. That's just me. Don, this brings us to an end. Thank you so much for stepping in. Once more, Jules and I are going to be back on Monday because we have a big, big weekend of club football returning. Until then, love the game. Love your neighbor. Love yourself.

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