Gab & Juls Show: No Mbappe, No Problem for Real Madrid

14:53Gab Marcotti:but yeah, not last night. And again, normally you would say, well, you're playing Real Madrid, maybe you're playing more culture defenders, but then you look at the team and no, that's not the case because it's Ferland Mendy, you know, who's not exactly but easy on the ball. It's Rudiger, it's Schormeni, you know.

15:12Julien Laurens:to be fair to Thiago Pizac and he's young and second star in a row and he almost cost his team a goal because O 'Reilly was very close to scoring on that interception but he's brave and for that I think he deserves a lot of credit for somebody so young to wanting the ball all the time to be ready to put that pressure on him he's quite press resistant which I really like and I think that helped him massively in the game too

15:39Gab Marcotti:Yeah, he's a gift of birth. I think you can see there's still a lot to learn. What I'm struck about is he pops up all over the pitch. And I don't know if that's his role or if he still, Arbeloa hasn't had a chance to work with him. Because certainly in terms of what Arbeloa is trying to do, if it is to provide a platform for Mbappe and Vini and Bellingham or whatever when they come back, you need guys who are going to be more tactically disciplined or because you could say Valverde is not tactically disciplined he goes all over the way yeah but Valverde's experience and the game intelligence that he can make those movements at the right time I don't think Pitak is there yet but I mean he's a teenager he's a kid he will get there in terms of in terms of Real Madrid we said this isn't necessarily a platform but there's no escaping what you and I have said I think all along is that to win the Champions League, if you have individual match winners and a standout keeper, you're in the game everywhere.

16:43Gab Marcotti:How big is the Vini miss penalty though?

16:46Julien Laurens:I mean, it depends. If they qualify next week and they lose 2-1 at the Etihad, they qualify, we can forget about it. If they don't qualify and City come back somehow and have their own Ramon Tata, yeah, we look back and not just look at the penalty miss, but also i was not too sure by the way it was a pain but hey it was given it's a terrible penalty you can have you can have a good pen that he saved no problem he's missed six penalties i think out of 20 odd or something like that it's like it's not a great ratio yeah it's bad but remember we had that last season they were all missing one after the other kilian as well and all of that so it's not new but if you still qualify it's cool you forget and then the next time you have one whenever that is then okay you you look into it again but if they don't qualify yeah it'd be a massive turning

17:36Gab Marcotti:point because i don't think i mean i'm sure it's happened that somebody's come back from four goes down and you may tell me right now when it's happened well i would rather not but obviously there's one oh yes sorry i'm really sorry i went there it's okay i'm really sorry i genuinely just I wasn't thinking of that.

17:56Julien Laurens:But it happened only once, I think.

17:59Gab Marcotti:But it's just one goal, but it's a huge difference. It is an absolute thing.

18:03Julien Laurens:But then you can say that the save from Courtois, which I think is an incredible save with his leg on the Pitak or Riley, is probably as big than the penalty miss in a way, because a 3-1... That changes the narrative completely.

18:18Gab Marcotti:Like you said, great goalkeeper and match winners. Final word on Vini. As you know, I'm not the biggest fan. But I think he's been productive the last couple of games. Productive in his own way. You know, you don't ask him to go chase people down. It's, you see, and I don't think some people will be like, oh, look, Mbappe's not there, so Vini's better. But you can also turn around and say Mbappe's not there, so Vini is stepping up. Yeah. I think he's really felt, look, after what he went through with the incident at Benfica and Pristiani, I'm not saying it would have melted or whatever but it does it was an energy sapping incident at a minimum I think he stepped up with leadership even when Real Madrid have played poorly and I think he knows and I think he kind of likes the fact that it's on him, right?

19:14Gab Marcotti:Yeah, maybe

19:14Julien Laurens:I mean he's kind of always been a bit of the leader anyway and he's a bit lucky on that the assist for Valverde because without the deflection I don't think he leads to the goal like he did but at least he's there and he's coming at you with the ball and really I don't think sometimes we probably don't praise enough players like him like Lamine like Sheki like you know Kvaskeliar last night or even Barcola and Olisse on Tuesday night too and I know the game right now is a lot about physicality and pace and you know having those kind of bodies but when you see those dribblers who do who play the game very differently and there are not that many left to be to be to be honest i think it's beautiful and i'm glad that he still has a key role like

20:00Gab Marcotti:that to play in a game of this caliber final point valverde's shot with valverde's goal with his weak foot should donnarumma have done better i thought so and then i think he hits it

20:13Julien Laurens:really well too. I don't know. It's just the three goals and L 'Equipe gave him 10 out of 10, which is only the 20th player in history for L 'Equipe and you know how they take their ratings, their match ratings very seriously. 10 out of 10 for the hat trick but it's just the difference between the three goals and the way he took it and like you mentioned before his football IQ and intelligence but also the movement that he has and that right foot, left foot, whether it's a sombrero and then the volley, It's just really incredible.

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22:01Gab Marcotti:Go to maintainx.com slash sports. That's maintain and the letter x.com slash sports. All right, enough Real Madrid. How about some quick hits and send? Let's go, Gab. Now, you were so negative about Paris Saint-Germain's moment, Jules. Yeah. Now, does the 5-2 demolition of Chelsea change your mind?

22:22Julien Laurens:I mean, it's not a 5-2 game anyway, for sure. I thought PSG was still outstanding in a lot of things that they did. The setup, how they pressed, who pressed where. The Joe Neves performance on Col Palma, for example. The Barcola's first goal. There's a lot of really good things. But I think it was thin margins, as we said. You say thin margins because Jorgensen gifted a goal. Because the tiny offside on Enzo, who should never be offside to make it 3-3 on the Joe Pedro goal. and when Rossinho said that he was happy and he thought it was a good performance I can see that I can understand that however it's a 5-2 defeat for a reason as well because Luis Enrique's changes his coaching during the game was outstanding Grazkeliar coming on even Mayulu even Kangin Lee was for Rossinho I mean I don't know why he was waiting but to wait 83 minutes we're gonna get to

23:20Gab Marcotti:that we're gonna

23:21Julien Laurens:get to that it was crazy but I really think that PSG, maybe that was the moment they were waiting to turn, not to turn around the season, but certainly to kick off, to kick on a little bit more of what we saw last season. All right.

23:36Gab Marcotti:I'm sorry, since you're the Techers guy, I think we saw three ridiculous goals in this game. I want to know which was the best one. So, Virginia with a little miss control and then chip of the keeper. Yeah. Kvica, that rocket and or Speedy Barcola with the opener. I think the most difficult one is probably Spidi Barcola. Oh, yes! No, I know. It's amazing. Because, again, I watched Gaetaia, and they had Del Piero who breaks everything down from a technical nerd sort of way. And he said that that was by far the most difficult of the three. And he also said Ezekiel Levezzi scored a goal like that for Paris Saint-Germain.

24:11Gab Marcotti:I remember. I was there. Amazing. Absolutely the same. No, no, but I'm...

24:15Julien Laurens:I enjoyed the feature one more. I'm all about the rocket. Yeah, but you also know he was about to do that. He looked like the whole world knew apart from Chelsea players. Okay. So, Speedy, do we like him a little more now? You were critical of him. First goal in 375 days in the Champions League. So what? He's scoring in Ligue 1.

24:33Gab Marcotti:Right now, he's his best player. Okay.

24:35Julien Laurens:And as for Chelsea, Gabi, conceding those two late Raskalia goals, 86th and 94th or whatever, cost them very dearly.

24:43Gab Marcotti:Yeah, completely changes the narrative. I have less of an issue of the 3-2 goal because they're attacking and trying to do something. I think you need to understand that this is the first half and you need to change the vibe and you need to slow things down and you're playing against a high energy team in Paris Saint-Germain so why you wait until 7 minutes from minute 83 you make the first changes and we can debate even if those were the right changes to me I don't understand that and I know that we got a straight answer there people are going to come out and say oh but Chelsea is so young and inexperienced that's why they could no no no what is this like they've been young and inexperienced for three years now i looked at it um they have like seven players who are 24 or over from from formenzo fofana uh chalaba i these guys are not children anymore okay so i think this i think some of this has to be on rosinia and finally the jorgensen thing i know robert sanchez makes mistakes remember when he first played Jorgensen he said he's not good.

25:43Gab Marcotti:What are you doing at mid-season chucking this guy out creating this instability and goal? Stuff like this I do not understand when he does this just like I don't understand Hato how all of a sudden he's like a regular but they really created a mountain for themselves to climb. We're putting Bodo glimped up near the top, Jules. They beat Sporting 3-0 and look poised to make history.

26:08Julien Laurens:Again! Again, you're right, Gabby. I mean, Super disappointing from Sporting, they're a good team, they never showed up. But they also didn't show up because Bordeaux-Gliem were incredible, I thought, in that first half, especially some of the triangles, some of the ball movement, some of the running that they did was just incredible. And it can't just be down to... I saw a lot of that narrative. Yeah, but they don't play, their league hasn't started yet. I mean, even the league was supposed to start this weekend and they're postponing their game. so they don't play in between the first leg and the second leg, for example.

26:41Julien Laurens:It can't just be that. They are a wonderful footballing team with great talent. Yes, it helps when they play on the plastic pitch with the bears and everything around and the snow and all of that. Sure, but they're still a wonderful football team.

26:56Gab Marcotti:Yeah, I'm psyched to see what happens if they keep going.

26:59Julien Laurens:No hurricane, but Bayern destroy Atalanta with 6-1, Gab. I guess you were wrong about giving them a chance. Yes, I will say this. You didn't really give them a chance.

27:08Gab Marcotti:You always have a chance. You've got to play the games, right? Bayern were absolutely terrifying in this game. Michael Alisse, people throw out the best player in the world, blah, blah, blah, right now. He has to be in the conversation somewhere. Their finishing was superb. They outran Atalanta. Palladino said, oh, well, we decided to sort of surprise them a little bit by playing on the counter at the beginning, and they gave up the first goal because they fell asleep and then just opened the floodgates. What I found nice about it was Atalanta fans applauding Bayern off the pitch, and their own team as well.

27:48Gab Marcotti:There's no shame in being beaten by Bayern on a night like this. It takes a length, and to me, extremely dubious penalty, won by Nani Madueke and converted by the best on earth, Kai Havertz. for Arsenal to avoid defeat away to Bayer Leverkusen. Jules, should Mikel Arteta be a little concerned? Because all these guys rested at the weekend, and it looked to me like Bayer Leverkusen were running twice as much and twice as fast.

28:15Julien Laurens:Yeah, and it was a pretty dull performance from Arsenal, again, certainly with the ball, considered on the set piece, which is obviously very ironic. No Martin Udegaard. No Martin Udegaard still is in that kind of number 10 position with the double pivot, which you can look at it and say, I'm not sure this is good for Declan Rice, for example. I'm not sure it's good for Eberchieze to play in that position either. But at least you avoid it. It's a very soft penalty, sure, no problem. For Kai Havertz, it's a great story, going home, where it all started and scoring that pen, not celebrating, obviously, and all of that.

28:49Julien Laurens:But for Arsenal, it's almost like you limited the damages that could have happened with this kind of performance

28:56Gab Marcotti:in game, in a way. I like Maneweke's reaction afterwards. when they asked him about it. And I think he's a realist. He's like, I felt contact, went down Penn. That's all he said. And I'm like, yeah, we saw that. But I thought it was a big call again, taking off Saka. And I would just be concerned. There's a whole physical aspect to it. They're preparing. They have a game at Everton, I think, this weekend. And then, obviously, it's the League Cup final two weeks. And in between the return, I don't know if he's taking advantage of the FA Cup. He did some big physical topping up, and maybe this is why they all look the way they did on the pitch.

29:37Gab Marcotti:But Arsenal either have to beat people with quality or they have to beat people with physicality and tactics. Physically, they weren't there in this game, I thought. That's the only thing that I might give them a pass on.

29:50Julien Laurens:Atletico Madrid destroyed Tottenham 5-2. But, God, there's one story dominating the headlines, obviously, here. Antonin Kinski, 17 minutes on the pitch.

29:59Gab Marcotti:Yeah, anybody who saw this, it's a human story above all. Igor Tudor decides to drop Guglielmo Vicario for this game, play this guy, and an awful mistake for the first goal. Second goal, it's Mickey Van Der Veen again. Mickey Van Der Veen, who should have been sent off. That was totally overshadowed, by the way. And then a terrible mistake for the third. He takes him out. A lot was made of the fact that Igor Tudor didn't seem to acknowledge him when he came down, there were stories that it was actually players as he went down the tunnel. He's clearly in tears. Yeah, yeah. You could see it for sure.

30:34Gab Marcotti:I got to turn this back to Tudor. This is beyond stupid what he did. Completely. In choosing Kinski, unless you decide I'm committing to Kinski. No, no, clearly. And he said, well, and he doubles down after, well, it was the right decision at the time. I wanted to take pressure off of Vicario. I'm like, what? You want to take, what pressure? If anything, this is a welcome distraction. Yeah, yeah. Now, obviously, Vicario, I think, genuinely should feel undermined and humiliated. You dropped me for this Muppet. This guy's going to bounce back. It was great to see the solidarity from people around the world, but clearly, I don't think we're going to see him for Tottenham again.

31:11Even more, I'll just say it again.

31:14Julien Laurens:Should Tudor be sacked? I think he should have walked it anyway. I think he should have resigned after that game. Even the players were shocked by this call about Kinski instead. whose last game, by the way, was a Carabao Cup game in October. He hadn't played a single second since October. And you throw him at the deep end like that in a game of this caliber against a team like Atletico Madrid. It's all the decisions, not just this one, but every decision that Igor Tudor has taken since he took over four games ago now. Four games, four defeats. We know that. I think he should have resigned. He didn't resign.

31:51Julien Laurens:I think the club should sack him. They go to Liverpool on Saturday. if he's still in charge by then and they lose again 5-5 I think he has to go

31:59Gab Marcotti:I wonder if they still have some claws in Heitinga's contract I don't know or is Ryan Mason still knocking him out? Yeah I mean I was with Glenn Hoddle

32:08Julien Laurens:going to Paris and a lot of Spurs fans on the web were saying Glenn please come and coach us Glenn would do better than you go to for sure

32:15Gab Marcotti:Now they were also starting to celebrate in this game we should celebrate Atleti's five goals and Oblak makes one mistake every six months and he got it out of his system now. But that Antoine Griezmann little flick, season 13 of Champions League football for Antoine Griezmann. So beautiful.

32:33Julien Laurens:And I guess you can get older and everybody who's listening or watching who's played football, you know at some point you're going to be slower and you're going to be as fair and you can't move as well. All of that is true and it's even true for the best of the best like Griezmann and all the others. But the touch, you would never lose. Even when you're 70, even when you can just walk and not run anymore, the touch will always be there. And that was a reminder that even at 35 years old, Antoine Griezmann's touch is still beautiful.

33:01Gab Marcotti:I just wonder, you told us he wants to go to MLS, blah, blah, blah, but I wonder if he might not have the brief emotional... No. No, he would finish,

33:08Julien Laurens:hopefully winning the Coupe del Rey. That is between the two clubs. And the Champions League. Yeah, let's see. Galatasaray beat Liverpool 1-0 in the first leg on Tuesday. And Gabby could have been worse even for on the slot.

33:20Gab Marcotti:It should have been worse. The Liverpool goal... Sorry, the Galatasaray goal that a Seaman scored was Borak Yomaz offside early. It was nonsense. He's not interfering with play. It's tough. I thought it was a horrendous performance. People are going to pick on Ibrahima Konate, who was really, really bad in this game. I go back to the same thing. You don't have a plan B with centre-backs because you didn't sign any. Now you're down three defenders. And that's on the club. I don't think Van Dijk helped him very much. I don't think the full-backs helped him much. I thought Salah was pretty much a virtual player in this place.

33:51Gab Marcotti:in this game. I don't know if Florian Verts is fit or not, but he was bad on his first start after his injury. The only good news is that it's one goal. And so one goal, Anfield, you imagine that they can turn around. And I think Galatasaray are going to be kicking themselves. And by the way, those people say, well, Galatasaray had a goal disallowed. Liverpool had a goal disallowed. Slott coming out and saying, oh, this is a lot like the first game. No, it wasn't like the first game. And in fact, it was like the first game, which they lost, by the way. That's not a good thing because you're six months on and Liverpool were terrible in that phase of the season.

34:28Gab Marcotti:So I don't think Slott's helping himself. He's got to be angry. Heartbreak for Newcastle, Jules. They outplay Barcelona, take the lead and then give up a penalty deep in injury time as it finishes 1-1.

34:40Julien Laurens:Yeah, I think they can take a lot of pride and positive from the performance because they were really, really good in the usual style as well, obviously. So yes, they might be not clear, super big chances, but the intensity the pressure all the time how is this possible

34:54Gab Marcotti:because they're supposed to be tired he doesn't rotate I don't understand when it's convenient oh no we're exhausted he hasn't rotated squads too thin how do they keep going like this

35:03Julien Laurens:I don't know for how long they will go but certainly Barcelona were far below their usual level could not cope with intensity it's a pain but got lucky in the way to get a draw from Newcastle I don't need to see Araujo again by the way certainly not a right back Four defeats and two draws for the six English clubs in the Champions League, Gabi, plus a goal difference of minus 10 in the first legs. Is there a pattern here?

35:28Gab Marcotti:Well, because this is what people always say, right? Like, oh, people, oh, look, you know, the decline of this league, the decline of that league. I think there's a pattern. There's a pattern in the sense that four of those six clubs basically played B teams at the weekend or did not play in the case of Spurs. Liverpool played on Friday. and I was struck by how physically they were behind. We're not used to seeing English clubs out physical. To me, that is the only pattern. I think obviously the Premier League is physically very, very punishing. And even with that rest, you know, sometimes it comes to bear.

36:05Gab Marcotti:And no, every game is a story on its own.

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37:17Gab Marcotti:Brian Pata, senior defensive lineman from Miami. Gunned down. The key to this case, it's Brian. Boy, he's ripping.

37:26Julien Laurens:An hour before he died, he was on the phone arguing what's about.

37:29Gab Marcotti:This might be a hit. You want the truth. They just want a conviction. Being placed under arrest. We had a killer amongst us. Murder at the U. Listen now. Jones, let's do that thing where we make predictions. Yes. And then look silly afterwards. Always. People make fun of us. percentages to advance Galatasaray and Liverpool Galatasaray 1-0 up from the first leg

37:51Julien Laurens:yeah I think Liverpool will do this on field we mentioned it earlier as well Galatasaray are terrible away from home we saw that Juventus where they were very close to being knocked out despite winning the first leg massively so I think Liverpool in the condition that they improve obviously massively from what we saw in the first leg but I think they were just about going through so I'll have I'm pretty confident so I'll go 60-40 Liverpool.

38:15Gab Marcotti:All right. That's exactly what I was going to say. 60-40 because there's so much that can go wrong with Liverpool right now. And it would be cool to see Ossie in the quarterfinals. Atalanta and Bayern Munich. Bayern are playing at home and they're 6-1 up from the first leg. This should be easy. Let's forget about this one. Should we just say 99 %? 100 % even. There's no such thing as 100 % in football. We've learned that.

38:37Julien Laurens:Absolutely. In this case.

38:39Gab Marcotti:Adeligo Madrid and Tottenham Hotspur. Tottenham at home, but they're down 5-2 from the first leg.

38:48Julien Laurens:The comeback is on. I'm kidding. Let's avoid another defeat from Spurs, because then it could be if they've lost at Liverpool at the weekend, it could be another one. This is not good, et cetera, et cetera. I think Spurs will win the second leg. I think it would be like a 2-1 win or something like that. I think they would show pride, and it'd be good for them, but they won't qualify. So I go 80-20, I think it could qualify.

39:14Gab Marcotti:But Spurs will win the second leg. Spurs at home tend to only beat German teams. Yeah, I'm going to give Spurs 10 % just for the mess that they're in. And finally, Newcastle United and Barcelona from the Tuesday night games. First leg finished 1-1. We're going back at the Camp Nou.

39:32Julien Laurens:Yeah, I think it's going to be a really good one. I think Newcastle will score in Barcelona. I don't think it will be enough still because I just don't think they can reproduce what they did on Tuesday away from home. Next week, with a big game against Chelsea halfway through in the Premier League as well this weekend. So I would go, obviously, Barca to qualify, but I would not give them that much of an advantage. So 65-35.

39:56Gab Marcotti:All right, I'm going to go higher down. I got Barca at 70%. I think the time for Newcastle to win was there. Yeah, yeah, sure. For them to go and win at the camp now. No. That's asking a little too much.

40:06Julien Laurens:So let's look at once there's games now, Gabi as well, Leverkusen Arsenal 1-1 first leg would you have gone

40:14Gab Marcotti:I've said Arteta's had so many wake up calls I don't know if Udegaard's going to be fit and if he's fit I don't know if he's going to be the real Udegaard Arsenal obviously have to be favourites but I'm going to give them 65 % because at some point things are going to go can go against you and you can get really really unlucky very quickly

40:37Julien Laurens:I think 60-40 for me because they will still be at the MRS because they somehow kind of salvaged that first leg so they'll go through the PSG-Chelsea game the 5-2 first leg win that we've already analyzed

40:56Gab Marcotti:I think Paris Saint-Germain I mean, three goals is a mountain if Jorgensen is back there I don't, you better talk about people's confidence this guy, you should hit this guy's face after making the mistake Yeah. He wants to go straight back to the dressing room. I saw him. You saw Enzo Fernandez's reaction. If I'm Enzo Fernandez, I'm like, if you put this Muppet in goal again, I might have to have a word with you. I think it's too much. I'm going to go Paris Saint-Germain, 70%.

41:26Julien Laurens:Yeah. I was going to say 80-20 because I'm too scared of another Ramon Tada. Obviously, that's the people like me scarred by what happened before for PSG. But yeah, it's a long, long wait for Chelsea to come back into this game. And Real Madrid City, is the remontada maybe at the Etihad? Of all those remontadas possible?

41:43Gab Marcotti:Yeah, if you ask about who can make up a three-goal deficit, I think this is the one that you would choose. But he's got to get things right. Yeah. He is, I feel like City right now are getting results when they do get results in spite of Pep. He's not a value added to the team the way he has been in the past. Real Madrid tend not to just concede many goals and get hammered but I think experience here matters too I don't know if Arbelo does something stupid in this game it's going to take a whole bunch of these stars lining up maybe a pop-based start but he's not fully fit and so he's not good and if the burn is substitution whatever it's going to be episodes but I still have Real Madrid at a solid 60 % to qualify yeah probably I would say

42:26Julien Laurens:60-40 maybe a little bit more 65-35 I think there have to be 3-0 up going I know you go away from home, but it's still. I thought it was still. Yeah, so I think it's still possible, but it's a long shot again. Bodo sporting, the three-nil win in the first leg. Bodo to go through shortly.

42:44Gab Marcotti:It's a lot to turn around. It's a lot to turn around for sporting. They're not a team that's built to go and run up the score. That said, the thing about Bodo is if they go and they play the same way and commit people forward the way they've done, they can be exposed. So, look, I know every neutral in the world is rooting for Bodo, but I'm only going to go 55.

43:07Julien Laurens:No way! No way!

43:09Gab Marcotti:And I'll tell you why. At some point, the bounces go against you. First six games of the Champions League in the group stage, we saw Bodo being really, really unlucky. What's that got to do with now? And they dropped a ton of points. Yeah. And that can happen again. It's not like they've improved. I think there's a level of randomness to football. Not when you 3-0 up from the first leg, surely. I've got them 70 % going through. Really? So you think the gap between Bodo and Sporting is bigger than the gap between Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea? In terms of the squads, the ability and everything.

43:40Gab Marcotti:No, it's just I don't think Sporting can come back into a game like this. All right. Sporting fans, you heard it. Rodri has been fined£80 ,000, which I'm imagining is a couple days, maybe three days wages he plays taxes on it I don't know maybe these are tax deductible when you pay these I don't know for his comments about referee Robert Jones' neutrality after City's 2-2 draw with Spurs but he escapes a ban now just to remind you of what he said he says I know we've won too much and the people don't want us to win but the referee has to be neutral that's what he said are you okay with punishment Jules?

44:22Julien Laurens:yeah I think I mean they wanted to avoid the ban they got it, the fine doesn't matter because as we said, he has plenty of money, the club has plenty of money as well. It probably crossed the line, that neutrality and questioning the neutrality from the referee on that day. But I think that's probably the right thing to do. If you want it to stop, because I think this is the usual sanction for something like that. if you really want to go after those kind of comments for players, for managers, I think we said that the other day about a manager, I can't remember who, then yeah, ban him. Because next time, he will know to shut his mouth.

45:03Gab Marcotti:And I think that's what you should do. I think you should do it.

45:06Julien Laurens:But it's hard now because why would you change now? Because you don't, you haven't done it before.

45:11Gab Marcotti:I think you, you make an example with Rodri and you just ban him. Absolutely. Absolutely. Rodri's experienced enough. He's been here long enough. He's English good enough. He gave his explanation. He said, well, I meant to say this. I meant to say that. maybe it was heat of the moment or whatever, but you have to hold people accountable. Yeah. And, you know, I don't think a one-match ban destroys Manchester City's season. No, no, no. But at least it is a punishment, unlike£80 ,000. Yeah, sure.

45:36Julien Laurens:The Times and others report that Roman Abramovich is obliged to pay less than a billion pounds to some of the victims of the war in Ukraine. Gab, what happened to the£2.5 billion that he got for the sale of Chelsea? Did he receive that?

45:50Gab Marcotti:Or is this two different things? So I invite people to go back because I've been saying this all along and I don't understand why people kept going on and on about this. So of the$2.5 billion, if you remember, Clearlake and Boley held$100 million back because there were some questions about some payments and they might have to pay some fines. And they were right because they had to do that. But the other thing is, from the start, what made no sense, everybody's reporting, oh, he's going to give all the money to the victims of the war. And I'm like, wait a minute. Like, he should give his profits that he made from the sale.

46:26Gab Marcotti:You could make that argument. But what about the money he put into Chelsea? And so, sure enough, in the accounts, they see that the deal was, hey, it's the net proceeds of the sale, so it's less than a billion pounds. That's still a lot of money. But, you know, he bought the club for a certain amount, and what he was doing over the years is he was loaning, he was basically lending money to himself, lending money to Chelsea, right? which by the way was legal. It was an owner loan at the time. I think a lot of people, this has been so badly handled from the start. There's been a lack of transparency, a lack of clarity.

47:01Gab Marcotti:Now people think that promises were made and not made. And of course, this is before the other biggest issue with this, which is that they couldn't agree at the start. Oh, victims of the war in Ukraine. Well, that includes the Russian victims, Abramovich is saying. And let's go and give money to those people too. Whatever you think about this, this should have been clarified at the very start. CAF has decided to postpone the Women's Africa Cup of Nations just 12 days before it was due to start in Morocco. Jules, many are saying it shows a complete disrespect for the women's game.

47:31Julien Laurens:Yeah, I think it's a disgraceful decision, really, by CAF. I just don't understand that it's an insult to not just the women who were about to take part in this tournament, which is a massive tournament, of course. Imagine UEFA doing the same with the women's Euros, for example, 10 days before, saying actually you've qualified you're prepared you're in it we but it's not going to happen

47:53Gab Marcotti:they might move it to the summer they're saying yeah because it's fun being playing football

47:57Julien Laurens:that in itself also show the lack of respect for the women's game but for women in general in the whole world but also in africa this decision taken by men taken by men mostly let's be honest here is it's just i think a disgrace absolutely so i don't understand it and i i have

48:14Gab Marcotti:a real issue here governance-wise with CAF as well because when it's convenient you know critics say oh CAF is just a puppet of FIFA uh now a decision like this is made um is this CAF on their own because if FIFA does have an undue influence over CAF as people as many critics suggest then FIFA should go to them and say hey guys no right I genuinely don't understand you have the hotels you have the stadium you spent a ton on them you were able to hold the men's tournament there two months ago i obviously women's football you're going to get much fewer fans much more people traveling it should be easier yeah what did you do did you book out the facilities for somebody else what like what what is the problem here incredible five members of the iranian

49:01Julien Laurens:women's national team and a member of staff have been granted asylum in australia where they were playing the Asian women's cup Asian women's cup another one initially accepted but then changed her mind got the others are on their way back though

49:14Gab Marcotti:yeah and look I mean these are personal decisions that people make I think a lot of this has been politicized a little bit with people speculating about you know there's a politician in Australia who said oh you know they should they're being trafficked back, anti-trafficking, saying that the women who have chosen to go back to Iran aren't doing so of their own free will and that they're being trafficked and held hostage. I don't know if it's true or not, but you have to have evidence if you say this stuff. You can't just say, you know, these narratives that people chuck out there, especially in times of war, when there's so many unknowns, I think are really, really irresponsible.

49:58Gab Marcotti:You just hope that all these people stay safe and i think you appreciate the normality of women and men being able to play sports and this gets taken away from them it's time it's time it's texter time aries the fund who wisely loaned our pal john texter money and now control the assets since he didn't pay them back in time or in some cases at all is uh figuring out what to do with the clubs um rwdm brussels which of course our hero John Texter briefly renamed as Daring Brussels. Daring. Which is actually Molenbeek, right? It is Molenbeek, yeah. They're up for sale. Botafogo might be up for sale as well, although they need to go and open up all the books because how much of Botafogo's assets are actually Leon assets and the other way around, it's not clear.

50:50Gab Marcotti:Leon probably won't be at least for now, Jules, because it's worth a lot less than it could be, right?

50:56Julien Laurens:Yeah, yeah, yeah. and I think Michelle Kang is doing a very good job in the way she's taken over the club and trying to make it better and more valuable. Obviously, our friend Johnny, who's still trying to hang on to these positions and everything. And as you said, Iris, just having no time for it at all. It goes quickly in football, doesn't it? On the pitch and off the pitch as well. And at some point, not that long ago, he thought he was the king of the world, winning the Libertadores and everything. and you're doing winning the FA Cup with Palace. That was all down to him. I forgot to do that.

51:30I know.

51:31Julien Laurens:Oh, Johnny. I mean, you know.

51:36Gab Marcotti:I'm assuming one option for Aries is to just keep the shares and let Michel Kang run the stuff. Yeah, I think so. Or maybe sell them to Michel Kang. Although, of course, Michel Kang at that point would say like, all right, but then I get these at a discount or whatever. Absolutely, yeah. She's in a strong position. Nobody's worried about, oh, Aries is going to be okay. Yeah, yeah. They're going to be okay. I do wonder what he has planned next. Does he have money? Can he pop up somewhere else? That's the big question. What's he going to do?

52:05Julien Laurens:No, no. We'll find out, I think, very soon because those kind of people can't stay too much away. They need the lamplight. John Texter, you're always welcome to hang out with us. Come to the show. Let's talk about Messi, Inter Miami owner, one of them, Jorge Mas, told Bloomberg just how much money he pays Leo Messi.

52:24Gab Marcotti:Yeah, okay, I thought this was a little weird. It was completely weird, I thought. But he says that Messi, he says like, I meaning, not you, Inter-Miami, but obviously I think he's the majority shareholder. He says, oh, we give him$70 to$80 million every year, but he's worth every penny. So I thought, how does he get to that number? So I thought it was interesting, and this kind of gives you an insight on how these people think. So he has a$12.5 million base salary in MLS, and he makes probably up to$10 million in bonuses, depending on how the season goes. So the rest of it is every year he gets paid in equity.

53:06Gab Marcotti:So he gets shares, effectively, in Inter-Miami, and they keep accumulating. Inter-Miami as a club has a valuation, has an enterprise value, like the ones those Forbes put out, which I think many of those are nonsense, but most people would agree it's probably north of a billion because that's just how much these shares are worth. So essentially, this means that if he stays until 2029, he could own up to a quarter of the club. I think it's an interesting model. I don't know if it would work with other footballers other than Messi, but when we have owners who, you know, they're talking about how high the costs are, how high the wage bills are, I wonder if we're going to have owners in big European clubs you know say you go to i don't know you go to early holland and you say hey you want a new contract how about you know we give you x many shares which you know it's not like you can sell them easily but they could increase in value or whatever um i i think they have to come up with creative methods like this if you want to compensate people leeds united have asked that chance about jimmy savile who for those who don't know and like to be honest he's only famous in england um he was a local media personality on the bbc um who was found to have sexually assaulted hundreds of women all this stuff came out after his death turns out there was a bunch of cover-ups and complicity from various people um it was basically like like a little bit like the me too just a lot bigger um the songs about him be treated as public order offenses and hate crimes jimmy salvage was from leeds yeah it's fine yeah um and what this means if you treat it as a public order uh offense it's as a hate crime it's what they do already for songs about hillsborough or about the munich air disaster um it carries far stiffer consequences does this make sense to you

55:04Julien Laurens:jules yeah i think they should have been done before uh i mean i think if you watch these games uh you hear them quite regularly i think from opposition fans who's especially the ones coming island road i think it's uh i i think it's a terrible part of history you know in england and i think that that was quite a massive thing when he all came out and we realized the the animosity of the the how enormous it all was so yeah i don't i think i think it's good from the

55:37Gab Marcotti:club to trying to go down that route yeah i i'm in slightly in two minds about this i don't know that So the actions, I mean, compared to Hillsborough, where people lost loved ones, and it's a direct attack on a city, on a specific set of fans. Here you're attacking a degenerate monster who happened to be from Leeds. Yeah, yeah. The implication of the song, as I understand them, and I've only heard a couple of the songs, is in that Leeds fans are all a bunch of Jimmy Savills. i don't believe right uh i don't know i think at some point lines have to be drawn i don't quite know that this clears that hurdle or that the level of distress that this would cause leads fans i remember lead sense specifically not victims of his crimes victims of crimes sadly are are everywhere they're all around us yeah you know uh i it's ugly i just think that if we are going to go down that route then we just have to agree okay there's a lot there's many other things which probably should also be bad and which are also unacceptable because of the language that we use and some people are going to say this would change kind of the the whole tenure or or nature of what it's like to go to a football match i'm okay with it i do not need to hear crowds hurling abuse of people yeah but we have to understand that this is going to be a big cultural shift and has to be a wider to a wider debate i think about it when referee felix bickle

57:10Julien Laurens:approached the var monitor in her to balance to one win over uh prus and monster in cologne in the german second division last weekend it suddenly went dark and anti-var banners appeared in the

57:22Gab Marcotti:stands gab what happened and what do you make of it yeah it was direct action by var haters i loved it there's a masked man crawling around behind it and apparently he just unplugged yes uh the monitor he had his comrades in the stands you know putting anti-var slogans look i like var um i think has been good for the game uh a lot of people don't um i'm okay with protests and direct actions um call me a radical uh as long as they're non-violent don't cause massive disruption and whatever else you do this and as long as you're prepared to face the consequences right because this is the key thing with direct action like the people who've done it historically whether you know it be nelson mandela or civil rights protesters or whoever or or environmentalists you know facing consequences means that you accept being you know detained or arrested or whatever right you did this once okay we get the message i don't need to see this again i don't want to see this go into violence you've done it um you did it in a way that got people talking about you We know you don't like it.

58:29Gab Marcotti:Next time, maybe come up with something else. Former Juventus cameo star, Caio George, scores the only goal as Cruzeiro beat Atlético Mineiro in the cup final in Mineiro State and State of Minas Gerais. I think it's their first cup final in a long time. That's not why we're talking about this. This game is going to be remembered. And please go on YouTube and just watch this madness. It's everywhere. 23 red cards. most of them after the final whistle.

58:58Julien Laurens:Yeah, but still, there's a shot and the Atletico Minero goalkeeper grabs the ball. It's a normal save, but then one of the cruzero forwards kind of is trying to encase the keeper with fumble the ball, is trying to go. There's a bit of contact and then the goalkeeper goes mad, absolutely mental on that forward. And then this is, do you remember the Valencia Inter Milan ball in the Champions League? I mean, how do you remember that?

59:27Gab Marcotti:You were like six years old.

59:29Julien Laurens:I know, but still, that's the vibes he gave me. Hulk, I mean, remember Hulk as in not the green Hulk, Hulk as in the footballer, was very much at the heart of it. There's one of the best bit. I don't know what was your best bit, Gabby. I mean, not best bit because we should not say this, but there's one of the assistant coaches for one of the two teams. There's somebody looking at the players going like, guys, come on, let's stop. What are you doing? Stop that. And then he sees one guy from the other team on the floor and start kicking him. And I'm just like, people losing their heads.

59:56Gab Marcotti:Yeah, Lienko, I think, who was really, really, I mean, he was hit when he was down by many, many people. What was weird about this, and why it was, I think, really badly handled, is that, okay, you can have a fight, and then people intervene, and then it stops. But here, there's 1 ,000 people on the pitch. Everything seems to calm down, and then suddenly, 10 meters over there, these two guys are fighting. And then you calm down, and then another one. Yeah, my favorite was actually, in the midst of it, watch the video, There's a security guard who's on the pitch who appears to be like seven feet tall.

1:00:31Gab Marcotti:He's like a giant. And he sees all these people fighting around him. It's weird. It looks like a professional wrestler. It's like 911 from ECW in there, except he wasn't chokeslamming anyone. But yeah, this is ugly. This was ugly.

1:00:46Julien Laurens:Iran's sports minister announced that his country would not be participating in the FIFA World Cup. As you know, Iran have qualified. moments later FIFA president Janine Fantino said that Donald Trump personally assured him that Iran would be welcome at the World Cup. What's going on Gab and what do you think will happen more importantly I think for Iran fans?

1:01:03Gab Marcotti:Yeah so a couple things to remember here first is that the first as somebody once said the first casualty of war is truth. I think there's a lot of posturing here so first of all it's not a decision of the sports minister whether Iran goes or not it's a decision for the Iranian FA. Okay. Secondly, it's pretty obvious that right now, since there's no peace, it's not a viable option. Thirdly, and I hate to be brutal or glib about this, this dude here might not be there next week. So I think that's up in the air. Equally, Infantino coming out and saying this, of course, it's his responsibility. He's got to make sure that every country that goes to the World Cup is welcome and can get in and don't have visa issues as we've seen you know that's been an ongoing thing um i think the reality is fifa want iran at the world cup i think the iranian national team team ali has a significance that goes beyond uh the iranian government which is obviously deeply unpopular with the iranian diaspora around the world with most of them and deeply unpopular I think, within Iran as well.

1:02:13Gab Marcotti:Now, if the war is still on, or it's unsafe, I think FIFA want to postpone having to make a decision on this as long as possible. I wouldn't take what this guy says seriously because it's way too early. Nobody's going to make a decision based on that. Let's just see how it evolves and hope for the best. Right, Jules, this brings us to an end. And I am going to take a well-deserved day off on Monday. But don't worry, I'm leaving you in safe hands because Nathan Manua will be in. So until then, love the game. Love your neighbor. Love yourself.

1:03:09Gab Marcotti:Jupiter Lynx face off in their playoff debuts. Who will advance? Keep up. It's playoffs. Tune in Tuesday, March 17th at 6.30 p.m. and 9 p.m. only on ESPN and the ESPN app.