Gab & Juls Show: Man City close in on Arsenal after Liverpool drubbing 

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23:43Brought to you by Argenix. All right, enough city. How about some quick hits instead? Let's go, Gab. After 16 consecutive victories, the run is over. Bayern München need a late Harry Kane goal to snatch a point away to Union Berlin. Plenty of mistakes in this one, Jules.

24:01Julien Laurens:And one of the goals of the season, or contender for goal of the season, the Luis Diaz one. But yeah, Manuel Neuer, of all people, who have been so good, not just this season, but through his whole career, really messing up massively on the first goal. They suffered on set pieces. is uh union also had a goal this a lot when it was nil nil even before the no your mistake luis diaz also with a miss of the season yeah but let's keep the goal of the season in mind because that was an unbelievable piece of not so much maybe the shot but the fact that he recovers the ball tackling then as he's getting up does his little hook and then to pass to like the defender i mean your goal is it harry kane just completely mishit his header right into the back.

24:44Close his eyes. It's, yeah, I think they're allowed

24:48Julien Laurens:to have a stinker after the run they put together. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. After when you go such a good run and to be fair, they still haven't lost. They're staying beaten. So it's a point. It could have, it should have been probably a better performance overall, but I think they'll take it. A late, late, late, Brian Broby strike means Arsenal are held 2-2 away at Sunderland. Gab, the clean sheet streak is over and City are two points nearer, four and behind in the table. Yeah, so I don't care about the clean sheet streak, like to me, like not a thing. Yeah. Where I would draw, where the reason I would be less concerned here about this is both goals come from individual mistakes and they come from individual mistakes made by arguably two of Arsenal's best players this season, right?

25:32Declan Rice and Gabriel. The way Brab... I know Brabby is big and strong and whatever, right? Yeah. But so is Gabriel. Yeah, he has a much better name. He gets missing them, yeah. He gets completely unmuscled. The other one, Declan Rice misjudges the flight of the goal. Arguably, I think you can blame Rice on the Broby goal as well, who kind of lets the ball get past them. So when your best players make mistakes out of the blue, and it's one mistake, I'm not concerned. Yeah, yeah, I see what he means. I'm more concerned by systemic failures. I thought Ars had enough chances to score. And I also thought, and I hate to say it because one of my heroes, Alan Shearer, disagrees with me on this, but Ballard should have been sent off.

26:12It's a red card for me every day. Or at least a penalty. This idea that, oh, but you have to jump to put your... First of all, he's not jumping. No. He's just leaning forward. Dude, you've got to learn how to do that without elbowing Marino in the face. Yeah. Another league leader, Real Madrid, dropped points too. They don't go beyond a scoreless draw away to Rayo Valle. Kind of four years in a row, they haven't beat Rayo Valle.

26:39Julien Laurens:Yeah, and this was not a good performance at all from Real Madrid, from Kylian Mbappe to, you know, even your defensive side of it. Vinicius had probably the best chance in that first half and it's a good save, but apart from that, he didn't create much. I mean, I liked what Bellingham was trying to do, but the others were far too quiet in a game like this. I guess if you have Alonso at the end of a Champions League week, quite a hefty fixture list in the last four weeks or so. and the international break to come, maybe you take that draw? You know what? Rayo also played in Europe. In fact, Rayo played on Thursday night, to be fair.

27:15Quite a crazy game.

27:15Julien Laurens:And they had better chances to win this. And they made a bunch of changes. Look, I think I want to say a word on Chouameni, too. You notice him especially when he's not there. I don't think Camavinga was bad, but he just does not come in. He does not have the authority of Chouameni. Encourage you. Do you want to put positive spins on it? I thought Arda Guler showed that he can playmate. a little bit. I'm not saying he's going to turn into Luka Modric, but I thought he spread the ball okay. And Bellingham looks fitter. He looks fitter. He looks like the Bellingham, fitness-wise, he looks like he's getting closer to that.

27:48And I think they can definitely use that.

27:51Julien Laurens:And yet another league leader, Napoli, also beaten. Tuny La Bologna and Antonio Conte says that he must be doing a bad job. Is he right? Yeah, so he comes out and he sounds like a little league coach when he's like, this is not a team. There's no alchemy. There's no cohesion. this means that I must be doing a bad job. Now, am I going to argue with you that you were terrible on the day? Yeah. Surely it's not just down to alchemy and cohesion and chemistry and whatever. No, it's down to the fact that you don't create chances. You don't have the excuse of the absentees because Lukaku's been out all season.

28:27You spent all the money on Hoyland. De Bruyne was supposedly the problem, but then all their metrics have gone down after De Bruyne got injured. I would be more concerned I would like you to explain to me how is it that you take just one shot on goal in the entire second half that to me is more of a problem than coming out, I'm hoping this is not what he's telling the players behind closed doors because it doesn't work Jules we're not done because we have more quick hits Tottenham Huxley and Manchester United battles a 2-2 draw as Matthijs De Ligt rescues Ruben Amarim deep in injury time Jules they both get a point you can make a case that's generous based on what we saw Maybe they should have both gotten zero points.

29:07Julien Laurens:It was a terrible game of football. I'm not really sure. I guess probably worse for Spurs being at home, and I'm not really sure where they're going, how they're going, and what's the idea here, because I just don't see anything. Maybe they just don't have enough talent for what Thomas Frank wants to do. Maybe Thomas Frank can do what he wants to do, or maybe he doesn't even know himself. But this was so poor from them, and I know at some point they look like they're going to win the game in a miraculous way because that goal from Tell is deflected again and the one from Richarlison is a free goal.

29:44Julien Laurens:Was Odober's shot not going in? I'm not sure if he goes in. It looks like the little flick from Richarlison brings him because he's so close to the post. If he doesn't touch it, I think he hits the post. And I think Odober is, for me, one of the bright things that Spurs can show for so far this season, but it's not enough. What about them getting totally just hammered after taking off Xavi Simons? I mean, it looked as if you'd taken off Gary Lineker. Yeah, the bruise and stuff. I mean, I don't see anything from Xavi Simons that I've guaranteed you to stay on the pitch anyway. So, yeah. Inter go John Top of Serie A with a 2-0 win over Lazio Bega.

30:25Julien Laurens:Did Lautaro mean that opening goal? First of all, it's Ballon d 'Or, Lautaro. Ballon d 'Or, yeah. Secondly, I think it's really funny. It is one of the ugliest shots you're ever going to see, and basically what he's trying to do, it is worth watching the high length if your tech is obsessed like Jules is, because he's just trying to get to the ball, and then I think he kind of realizes there's no way he can control it, get away from the defender. So he's like, I'm just going to try to hit it, but it's just everything you're not supposed to do. His standing leg is way behind. His body weight is the wrong way.

30:59He's a really, really good player. I thought Inter played very, very well. I felt bad for, I thought Di Marco was exceptional. Your boy, Bonnie, scoring again. Yeah, very good. And Zelensky also disallowed goal, but really unlucky because that was way before that supposed handball from Di Marco. So, yeah, Kivu's given them a level of solidity. They're not as pretty as they were under Simonin Zaghi, but Kivu's given them an extra level of solidity, which I think they need. Barry Saint-Germain need an injury-time buzzer beater from Jean Neves. A header, no less. Not for the first time. We've seen this before.

31:33He's got great timing. They take all three points away to Leon. We can't even reference John Texter now anymore.

31:39Julien Laurens:We can. No, we can't. You're right, because Michel Kang is in charge. She was there. She was very happy when Ashley Mettland-Nyre scored to make it 2-2 at the start of the second half. Lovely, lovely goal if you want to go and watch it. Just close your eyes on the PSG mistakes defensively through the whole game. it was not a good performance from PSG they found a way you can talk about I don't know whether resilience and mentality I don't buy it all of it because they probably don't deserve to win like they didn't deserve to beat Nice the weekend before they scored goals at 11 v 10 because again the winning goal last night is 11 v 10 like the one against Bayern well just for two minutes but yeah yeah but still so they won it's good they're back at top of the table two points clear of Marseille and Lens but overall you can see how emerged the absences, the issues with fitness for all those players.

32:31Julien Laurens:Even the one who played in that game is really taking its toll on the team and the performance because they're far, far from the team that we saw last season. They won five of their past 11 games. Sorry, five of their past nine games. But three of those five with goals coming in the 90th minute or later. Chelsea scored three times after the break to beat Wolves 3-0. Gav, the first half was awful. He's absolutely terrible. You're playing a team. I don't care. Garnacho, Chance, he runs, blah, blah, blah. And then he throws his arms in the air. Izobanesca's having a really rough time. You know what?

33:03This is a game where Moises Caicedo was ordinary rather than superhuman. And then all of a sudden, everything deflates. We talk about Palmer descent dependency. There's definitely Moses dependency. Chelsea scored early in the first half. And then they bring in Estaval. And then business picks up. Talk about a player lifting a team. Yeah. Like, he is, he's a one-man show. He's tremendous. I don't want Chelsea to play him every week because he's still 18 and he's a kid and whatever. And you don't want to get in a situation where he picks up injuries. But he's just so much better creatively at so many other things.

33:40Maneska praising Garnaccio. I don't know if he's trying to do it to lift his confidence or whatever. But Garnaccio is so frustratingly inconsistent. Inconsistency at the back as well. Wesley Fofana, not good. Not good. There's just a lot to work on. Robert Lewandowski makes his first start for Barcelona more than a month. He gets a hat-trick as they win 4-2 away to Celta. They missed him.

34:06Julien Laurens:Yeah, massively. I mean, as you know, I'm not a big Ferran Torres fan. Anyway, but it's true that you see the difference when Lewandowski is in there. This was a very good performance from Barcelona going forward. Defensively, it's always the same story. we're not going to repeat it again. But you know... I think that first goal was just so... where they all get sucked forward. At that level, you wonder even how is that possible. But hey, Flick was very happy at the end and he said, we were solid in the second half. Sometimes he doesn't see the same game as we do. But anyway, it's a win. Closed the gap to three points with Real Madrid because they dropped points before.

34:41Julien Laurens:So they did what they had to do and well done. Milan, two goal leads slip away to Parma and have to settle for a point. But at least Christian Pulisic is back. Yeah, he's back, and he missed what should have been the winner on the counterattack. He's been out since he played in the poch friendlies with the United States, and now he gets to, just as he comes back, but whatever. Milan, they absolutely destroy the defending, and look, the defending isn't good, but you're 2-0 up. You need to go, I think they're looking for scapegoats. On the first goal, Pervis is stupid. He gets pushed off the ball, but he's by the touchline.

35:23So Parma recovered. They pass it to Adrian Bernabe, who is a supremely talented player, and he pulls off this ridiculous curling shot. And he's like, oh, the goal is his stupidness fault. No, it's not his stupidness fault. Yeah, he got muscled off the ball, but they started to do a lot. It seems to me like now they're trying to look for scapegoats. How about you look at the fact that you're 2-0 up at halftime, or 2-1 up, I guess, because the Bernabe goal, and instead of taking the goal to them and instead of creating more chances, you're like, let's just go and play on the counter-attack. You can't be doing this.

35:53You need to do better. Jules, you question how far up the Liga table Antoine Griezmann could realistically get last week after his 200th goal. I wonder if he heard you. And that motivated him. What? Jules doesn't think I can get to 220 goals? I'll show you. Comes off the bench, scores two, and let him go Madrid's 3-1 win over Levante, the first one with his first touch of the game.

36:13Julien Laurens:First touch of the game, and they need him because until that point, they were not very good and it changed the game. I mean, he's a wonderful player. We know that even at 34 can still make the difference. I don't know how regularly that can happen, either coming off the bench or starting. But in this game, I think they really needed something special. And he offers that. He can still offer something special on Moment of Brilliance because he's a wonderful talent. It's just he's 34 years old. Jan Alblak also coming up with a big save. This was not, like, this is like the Union Saint-Guy-Jouard game.

36:46These are not convincing victories.

36:48Julien Laurens:Gab, you've been tough on Spalletti before. Another game, another draw, this time in a Turin derby. Yeah, look, my view on Spalletti now is he's at, like, four training sessions. He's all about the training and the tinkering and whatever. Let's just let him tinker. Let's just lay off him, right? He played 3-4-2-1, one up, and like, oh, look, this looks like Tudor's team. It looked like a turd of a team, not necessarily a Tudor team. and he's trying different things. He's trying different combinations. I'm okay with that. I think they could have won this game. I think they probably should have won this game.

37:20I agree. But they're lacking right now of patterns of play and creativity because Kenan Yield has had an off day. Aston Villa are back, baby. Emi Martinez goes into beast mode and they destroyed Bournemouth 4-0. Jules, their joint fifth in the table. Right off Unai Emery at your peril.

37:37Julien Laurens:Yeah, absolutely. and on the back of a Thursday, Sunday kind of week because of the Europa League. And I was super disappointed by Bournemouth who also missed a penalty and there was other things going on. I'm not sure what's happening with Bournemouth in terms of fitness and energy and intensity. But well done to Aston Villa. The Buendia free kick is wonderful. Onana really dominant again in midfield. The substitutions that are working. Even with Watkins still being a bit disappointed in and off it. I still think that was a very good performance. But we said at the start of that season when they were not winning last season, they also went through a patch of, I think, 10 league games without a win.

38:18Julien Laurens:No need to panic when Unai is at the win, really. Well, it was... The expected goals were close, but I think a lot of that was down to the Bournemouth penalty. And if he puts it away, then it's a different... Maybe it's a different story. No Dybala, no Ferguson, but Roma still make quick work over Udinese 2-0. And they go top of Serie A level on points with Inter. Gab, Gasperini, He's getting it done. Yeah, talk about people I don't like, but I have to recognize because they're doing, he's doing a really good job. Like, you know, he says like, okay, Di Valle's part-time, that's fine. Let me find different ways of winning, different ways of playing.

38:51I don't like Artem Dolfbic. Hey, but Ferguson's out. I got to play Dolfbic. He's getting a tune out of guys like Pellegrini, Cristante Mancini, who all of a sudden, if you look at the assist for the goal, he looks like sort of a really bad version of Zinedine Zidane. I say that as a compliment. And there's more to come from this team. I think this team can get even better. I'll tell you what, the worst thing Inter can do right now is think, oh, look, we have all the strikers, we have the pedigree, we got this down. No, I think Roma can really win it. If you've shopped online, chances are you've bought from a business powered by Shopify.

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41:20Jules, they're not quite clicking. We've talked about this before. Is it especially hard for them to perform in the Champions League and in the league? Is it Volta Mata?

41:34Julien Laurens:Yeah, I think that's a bit of everything, really. I think Eddie Ha has been very disappointing in how he cannot get his team going. They're only two points above the relegation zone in a bad season again. So this is quite unacceptable from a Newcastle point of view. They still haven't won a way from home in the Premier League, which is, again, unacceptable for a team of this level with this kind of investment and this kind of players. You can't get them to play properly in the league, certainly. And even when they take the lead, and you know exactly what to expect from a Brentford team at home, you struggle defensively all over the pitch, really.

42:12Julien Laurens:You don't win any duels. The goal you concede, the first one, is embarrassing, really. the long throw, Pope, Botman, all of that, for a team of big guys like them. But how could they possibly have known that Brentford were going to employ long throws? I think Bern is lucky and unlucky in the same way because the first one is 100 % a penalty. You even see by his body language and his reaction to his challenge on Watara. The second one, I don't think it is, but they clearly give the second one because they realized they made a mistake on the first one and didn't give the first one. Pope getting injured, Ramzel coming.

42:48Julien Laurens:Just the whole thing has been a shambles of a weekend. Borussia Dortmund conceded in the seventh minute of injury time and have to settle for a point where Hamburg, Gab, when they're supposed to be more solid this season. Yeah, I think they are more solid, Jules. This is straight out of the old Borussia Dortmund playbook, but I think the game against Midweek at City took a lot out of them, the way they were just going, like, chasing them around, which is why he made a bunch of changes. You know, we saw there was no Bellingham, no Neymetra. They'll start on the bench. It was gross back in there.

43:28And no idea me either. And they still took the lead. They made it tough. In the end, late in the game, one of the other teams who fit into the box, anything can happen. Maybe Nicholas Sula should have been in there. I don't know. But I'm less concerned. They are more solid. It's just, they're just not particularly good. That's the issue. But then nobody of the top teams seems to be particularly good in Germany other than Bayern. Flo Balogun scores and then gets himself sent off just before halftime as Monaco lose at home to Lens. Jules, we're very happy for our friend Josefa Gourlian, as ever.

44:05Julien Laurens:They're amazing. But is the Pocugnoli effect wearing off a little bit? There hasn't been an effect yet, Gab. So I don't think it's wearing off. It just hasn't happened yet. It's a month now. I think they arrived, they were fourth, maybe another six. They're still struggling to play well or two. Yeah, but they played well against Spurs, right? They were unlucky. They should have won that one. Did they win against Bodo Glimp? True, but they were not good in that game, and they've lost two in a row now in the league, so against Paris FC. And this one, where they were well beaten by a wonderful last team, it has to be said.

44:37Julien Laurens:The last were very, very good on the day. And Poconoli has a lot of work to do at a time where a lot of those players are going to go away on international duties. Two, they have to go back, they go to Rennes when they come back after the break. Rennes, who won two in a row now, and then it's the home game against PSG. So, plus the Champions League obviously coming back. So, there's tough games ahead. That's for sure for Monaco and Pocognoli. The eternal Mimo Berardi has caused twice and Sassuolo win 3-0 at Atalanta. Gav, is Ivan Juric about to lose his job? Again? First of all, I should point out, when I wrote this, I thought, Bernardi must be like 35 by now.

45:15He's not. He's only 31 years old. It's crazy. I love the fact that he's just a swollen legend. He's going to stay there forever now, right? I think he has to at this point. That Juve ship has sailed. Ivan Juric, all indications are that maybe even by the time you listen to this, he'll be gone. There's a break coming up. They've had a horrendous run. Juric, man. So like three jobs in the space of 15 months, all of whom last, what, like less than a couple months? Between Southampton and Roma and now this. I, yeah. I don't see how you come back from this. I don't know that they haven't all been bad, but I think he's had personality issues.

45:58I think the row with Lukman, really, really bad. And by the way, this is one where, you know what? Lukman can be a pain in the butt. And if you want to go and have a go at him, which you know Gasparini did all the time. Find him in the locker room, you know, pin him to the wall, whatever. But you don't, after he's walked past you, you don't turn around with your big glasses and go after him. This is not a good look. Speaking of Atalanta, they won away to Marseille in midweek, which infuriated our boy Roberto de Zambi. So it seems apt that Olympique Marseille should vent their fury on Brest. Of course, they're not a football club, just a female body part.

46:37With a convincing three-no win, which keeps them in second place.

46:40Julien Laurens:Yeah, they were top of the table even between Saturday when they played and PSG winning on Sunday night. I'm impressed and Matt Jekyll in goal, massive mistake. But Martins were good. Artur Vermeer in midfield with Angel Gomez, very, very good, very interesting. I hope De Zerbe sticks with them a little bit because we know how much he likes to change and sometimes I think that has disturbed the players a little bit and the style of football is in the national break. So De Zerbe left and said that he's looking forward to driving back to Italy with his cigarettes in his car and his music, as he said.

47:14Julien Laurens:And then we reminded him that this month, apparently November is the month against tobacco or against, you know, cigarettes and stuff. He said, well, you just forgive me on this one. So he was back to his best in terms of humor and he was open and he was smiling again, which is good to see. We like when Roberto is happy. We like happy that's happy, yeah. Plenty of changes in the boardroom at Tottenham after Daniel Levy's exit gap. They're looking for a new sponsor as well. And they want sponsors also for each of their stands. Yeah. So, I mean, I always notice this when I go, I always like to look to see who the sponsors are and ask if, have I heard of these or are these like weirdo betting companies with a bunch of numbers in them or like Chelsea, one of Chelsea sponsors is a company called Ling Long tires.

47:56And I guess, I mean, I'm assuming it's all the same thing, but I guess they make three different kinds of tires, Crosswind, Laos and Toyo tire. and it looks like they're only sponsored by tire companies and nothing else. Do you know who? Spurs have had the same sponsor for 10 years. Talk about forgettable. Yeah. Do you know who they are on their shirts? Not like this, no. So 10 years of Spurs and Harry Kane in our faces and we don't remember.

48:28Julien Laurens:Is it something, AI something? Very good, AIA. We do this for a living, watch a lot of football. this tells you about everything you need to know and this is why I think a lot of clubs a lot of sponsors are saying I don't necessarily want to meet your price here they're still looking for naming rights for the stadium but they're also going to sell individual naming rights to the individual stands which I don't believe that's been done I don't really pay attention to this have you ever been to one? it's usually a former player or club legend or something like that or the, you know, I don't know, the cloth stand at Forest.

49:05Julien Laurens:That's very regular or so can in the English at Liverpool. But I was trying to find a funny sponsor that you could put on the stands. I think we have a bit of money left over because this show is doing so well. The Cabin Jules stand. Should we inquire about sponsoring a stand? Or maybe at least a ladies' restroom at Spurs? Yeah, that's a good idea, you know, if you want to. Let's go to the Women's Super League. Arsenal come from behind to draw 1-1 with Chelsea. But Jules, plenty of offside suspicions and calls for VAR. Yeah, two goals is allowed for Arsenal. One, I mean, one at least was a massive mistake.

49:43Julien Laurens:There's no VAR in the women's game in the WSL, which can be explained. Well, sorry, and one goal which stood, which should not have stood. I said Russo, which was the equalizer. Russo won in the 87th minute. To be fair, I think the draw is, considering how the game went and all those decisions and everything, I think the draw is probably a fair result anyway. But yeah, you're right. Even that goal was controversial in a way. So, I don't know. Vine, the WSL, is a very difficult one because stadiums are sometimes just too small for it. Two, because of the cost, obviously. I don't know what the answer is, although you came up with a good idea.

50:20Yeah. So, about the stadiums being small, by the way, for those who don't know, this game was played at the Emirates, 56 ,000 in attendance. Tremendous result. But, you know, they don't play all. I mean, Arsenal, I think they play all their WSL games, but not their Champions League games. Champions League from the knockout stages, but yeah, all the WSL games. But a lot of these clubs, because they play at smaller venues. And it works for them because you don't have, you know, even if you get 10 ,000 in like a 60 ,000 stadium, it looks empty. You get, you know. You lose money as well. And so it's difficult to go and you lose money on it.

50:53And there is an expense involved with VAR. And obviously, if the teams want to pay for it, I'm sure they can have it. One alternative you mentioned there, FIFA now allow what they call video support referees. And they just work off the television pictures. And each team can make a challenge per half. And if the challenge is successful, they get to keep their challenge. This is what they did, I think, at the under-20 World Cup. it's what they do in the third division in Italy it's just a cheaper way you just have somebody on your bench look at their feet hey did Russo look offside yes, no now they're not going to have the technology drawing the lines of the pitch but the referee looks at it and says oh look, she's clearly offside or you know what, I can't really tell let me stick with the call of the pitch it's a band-aid but the clubs aren't going to pay for VAR and this is a decision you have to make The coaches may want it because coaches will be competitive.

51:49At the same time, money that you spend on VAR is money you're not spending on players, on facilities, and on growing the women's game. So it's a trade-off. This could be a small step in the right direction if that's what they want.

52:02Julien Laurens:England's coach Thomas Tuchel says he's open to sticking around beyond the World Cup gap because his contract currently expires at the end of the competition. Do you think that would be a good idea? Okay, so I feel for Tommy T, not just because he's my neighbor. if he's asked the question, Oh, would you stay around after the world cup? If he says, no, he's going to get hammered for, for, for, for, for not being, for being disloyal and just using England or whatever. If he says, yeah, then people are going to say, Oh, but it's such a bad look when we give, it's worked out so badly in the past. When we've given our contracts, you haven't proven anything yet.

52:39You, you need to, you need to show that you deserve your contract. So there's no right answer to this question. Right. Um, I think if he does well and he wants to stay, sure. But there's no reason that he should be asked this question now and that he should be answering this question. The FA were very smart, I think, in just giving a contract through the World Cup and take it from there. Let's go back to Wolverhampton Wanderers. It looks like they're going to get Rob Edwards from Middlesbrough to fill the managerial position left vacant after Vitor Pereira's dismissal. Now, you remember, they made an inquiry for him, then Borough wouldn't let him go, then they're going to have to pay money to Borough.

53:14So, Joes, I just don't like it when coaches walk out on their clubs in mid-season while they're employed. It's just a bad look, even if it's a different decision.

53:23Julien Laurens:I know. I understand. And I think there's a lot of people that share your opinion, Gab. I mean, even more at Middlesbrough right now who are very, very angry, even if they're going to get between three and four million pounds for it. Very angry that he's leaving them four months into his tenure. He just arrived in the summer. He gave all the right lines at the time. This feels like a family. I love this club. The unity is so important. and then as soon as he can, when there's another offer, he leaves. So Wolves and Robert was going a long way. He was obviously a player there. His family lives there.

53:54Julien Laurens:He's from Wolverhampton. He coached there. So it's not like if it was just a club that had no kind of ties to him. I get that. And that's the only way I can understand it. And I'm not maybe as tough on it than you are. But otherwise, I completely agree with you. I'm not even sure this should be allowed anyway. I think you should even only be allowed to sign another manager during the transfer window, same as players. I don't know why there's a rule for players and another one for managers, unless the manager is unemployed. In that case, it's different. But if the guy is in charge, the only time he can change clubs is between the January transfer window or in the summer, and that's it.

54:35Yeah, and I'm also, just from a career advancement perspective, obviously, as you said, he's got these ties to Wolverhampton, whatever. But he's joining a club that's last on the table and have yet to win this season. I think they only have two points. And Middlesbrough, I'm assuming, are doing relatively well in the championship. Second in the championship, yeah. So, I mean, I guess he can say, I'm not doing it. Yeah, it's a Premier League. And then he loses every game and goes down. And boy, wouldn't that be fun? True. So presumably, I'm saying he's not just doing this selfishly, I guess.

55:05Julien Laurens:Oh, yeah, you don't think so. Johnny Heitinger was sacked by Ajax during the weekend, and they still lost 2-1 away outtrag. Gab, this was inevitable, I guess. One win in eight in all competitions, 11 points behind another embarrassment in the Champions League. I mean, I think of zero points in the Champions League. There's deep structural problems. Ajax, they've had massive root and branch reviews, like seemingly every six months for the past five years. This runs really, really deep. I think a much loved ex-player did what he could obviously he's not cut out for this I don't know I'd be tempted to say bring back Fadi Ali but he's doing fine somewhere else you know who's going to come back though who our friend Eric Ten Hag of course is it done it would be done during this I think this week certainly yeah oh my god how excited are you we're going to watch Ajax again properly can you imagine wait what happens when Ajax play PSV and it's the ball Dutch derby Ten Hag against Bosch.

56:12Man, all we need is Ronald Koeman to commentate. Just for that, we can't wait. Cristiano Ronaldo bags a penalty, and El Nasser win 3-1 away to Neom. Jules, six straight games with a goal for him, and they stay three points clear at the top.

56:26Julien Laurens:Yeah, I mean, I think he's got, I think he might be six in five or something. I think he's scored twice in a game, and there's two penalties, but his partnership performed with Joel Felix. Joe Felix Gordon again. Nice goal. Very, very good. George Jesus on the bench. Very good again. To have, to be fair, money and command as your two wingers helps in terms of creativity with Brozovic behind the two strikers too. So, so far, so good. The penalty though. Yeah. We need to discuss. I was going to look up the guy and then I got distracted something else and I don't really care. Who's the dude with the beard who throws himself to the ground?

57:05Julien Laurens:Yeah, because we talked about that when he got a penalty. Do you remember the last minute penalty? But it was the same guy? I think he might be the same guy. All right, whoever it is, and I feel like I should know, and I'm sorry I'm letting you down. I just can't be bothered with this because I don't care. But, bro, you're an embarrassment. Whoever you are, you are an embarrassment. Even without European football, Leipzig can't find consistency in the Bundesliga Jews. I know, you laugh because nobody likes them, right? Nobody likes them. Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of guys. They lose 3-1 to Hoffenheim, and they remain six points back in second place.

57:38Julien Laurens:And the one weekend where Bayern dropped some points and Leipzig could just make a few, bridge the gap a little bit on the leaders because they were second going into this weekend. Then it doesn't happen. It's just an off day completely. They were well beaten by a Offenheim team that is not very good either this season. But yeah, it was very competitive on the day with Leipzig. Why not? I don't know if he can put down youth, maybe. on a weekend where it's a good opportunity for you to gain two points over Bayern, then you do this. It's pretty disappointing. Remember Preston striker Milutino Smagic and how he got an eight-game suspension for biting an opponent last season?

58:19Julien Laurens:Well, this time, Gab, he gets a nine-game ban for racial abuse. Let's see. Biting, racially abusing an opponent? Does that remind me of another striker? I can't remember. I don't know. Maybe it's his hero. I don't know. I don't know what this dude's problem is. It's not normal to bite an opponent. It's really not normal. You lose your cool. You want to be a man, punch him in the face and duke it out. I'm not condoning that either, but going and actually biting him. And then you follow this up by racially abusing somebody. dude, how long have you been living in this country? They, they take this stuff seriously.

58:53There's enough witnesses around. This guy clearly has, this guy clearly has issues. And I, I, I think I'm glad that people are cracking down on him. No Luis Suarez, but it's two goals and an assist. Sir Lionel Messi as Inter Miami rolled past Nashville in the playoffs 4-0. Jose's pretty good.

59:10Julien Laurens:I mean, I don't know where to start. Really, every show we say the same is incredible. This is far too easy for him. It's not a dig at MLS in general or the level of Nashville. The guy is just the greatest player of all time for a reason. And even at his edge now, he's still doing it consistently. That's 10 goals in his last five games now. I mean, Nashville were never going to be good enough to stop him anyway. I don't know if somebody in MLS will be, and we will find out very soon. Well, they beat them last time. Yeah, but in this kind of form, I mean. The Messi right now is just walking on water.

59:44Julien Laurens:There's a lot of talks about him going back to Barcelona for a tribute game or something like an homage that the club, a long due, should be doing for him. Laporta talked about him. Messi had a post on social media as well for it. in the new Camp Nou which makes so much sense and I think he deserves it as well but right now in terms of pure form it's just incredible it creates a fit would be a fitting way to reopen it when it's fully open the thing is do you wait until it's fully open to bring him back because he could be 45 by that age the way things are going Zohan Mamdani is the new mayor of New York Gabby says that to be an Arsenal fan which he is and to be a leftist which he also is they are into twin experience what does he mean?

1:00:27Well, first of all, you have to ask him. What I found interesting, the reason I included this, is that it got me thinking about football fandom, right? Now, I certainly do not think of Arsenal with the marble halls and the Bank of England Cup and the cronky Waltons and owning it. I don't think of it as there's been anything really leftist at all about it. But I think that's the great thing about football is, with some exceptions, and some clubs do have a very strong political identity, left or right we can kind of project our own views and feelings uh onto it and they kind of reflect our own our own worldview whether you're you know a democratic socialist he's a second democratic socialist in new york city after david dinkins um or whether you know your opinions or whether you're conservative whether you're right wing whatever um it's kind of like football kind of exists in a different sphere and for me i've always thought of it as completely separate of politics but other people can find maybe validation for their worldview in their football club there you go i got political and and arty farty on this one so how about that uh jewels this brings us to an end yeah but it's international break i'm excited uh we're gonna be back on thursday until then love the game love your neighbor love yourself

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