Gab & Juls Show: Why didn’t Chelsea attack Arsenal more?

18:22Gab Marcotti:I saw count on the number of training sessions that teams have a month, and it's like five or six, right? In terms of full-on as opposed to walkthrough. How are you supposed to improve about what you do now?

18:35Julien Laurens:Absolutely. That's why it's so tricky to arrive half through the season as well, because at least in the summer you've got your whole preseason and you can do the things you want. Nice, difficult for him. And playing in these League Cup semifinals, they were not back-to-back, but you had Champions League, back to back in between the two semifinals for example, it's bad for him because without the semifinals of the League Cup he would have been able to have a full week where he could have trained and prepared for the game at the weekend in the league, which hasn't been the case. So he would need a bit more time for us even to see a proper difference and certainly the consistency that we said is lacking right now.

19:10Gab Marcotti:It's pretty much nailed on that the Premier League are going to have five Champions League places next season. And the amazing thing is that the gap between the last Champions League place and the team in 12th in the Premier League is just seven points. I looked around Europe. I'm going to get these numbers wrong, but I think Serie A was the next closest. I think it was 12 there. Or it was 15 there. I think it's 17 in La Liga, 18 in the Bundesliga, something like that. I think 16 in Ligue 1. With that in mind, give me a percentage chance Chelsea finish in the Champions League places. I think Arsenal City and Villa would be, so then you've got two places left for all the

19:52Julien Laurens:teams from fourth to 12th, as you said. So in the likes of Newcastle, etc. United, Chelsea, Brentford, Brighton if you want to. No, Brighton are just below that actually. I think Liverpool will make it. I think Liverpool will finish maybe above Villa in third or it won't be much. So for me, it's United or Chelsea with the fifth place. So what, 50-50? 50-50

20:15Gab Marcotti:And you're ruling out everybody else

20:17Julien Laurens:Yeah

20:18Gab Marcotti:Alright But you got Bill in there, which is nice Yeah, we're just about to stay there

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22:16Gab Marcotti:Application times and rates may vary. All right, enough Arsenal. How about some quick hits instead? Manchester City rolled to a 3-1 win over Newcastle in the League Cup semifinals. 3-0 in game over at halftime. Jules Pep benched Rodri Scherke and Haaland

22:33Julien Laurens:How did his replacements do? They did well obviously Because as you said They were 3-0 up They were 1-0 up With Marmouche early on And then 2 And it was too easy for them And we go back to game plans As we mentioned for Rossini and Chelsea Because Ediha went with A back 5 as well Like he did in Paris And once again Well he worked better in Paris To a certain extent Then this time Even if Alanga Should have scored Before his goal actually And after his goal too, even more so, the Harvey Barnes chance. Yeah, I still think that it was not enough. And I still think that Eddie Haas saw this game as not the priority, the priority being the league and finishing in top five, to go back to the chat that we had before.

23:14Julien Laurens:And they need Champions League money and football for next season, which they don't have right now. Because otherwise, how can you play Volta Maddo in a game like this, when you know, and we all know, that the City defensive line will be very, very high. and yet you've got this number nine who cannot run in behind because that's not his game instead of Wisa. So unless something was wrong with Wisa. He's very tall, so he's got long legs.

23:33Gab Marcotti:He can take large steps.

23:35Julien Laurens:Well, that's probably in Eddie Howe's dream because in reality, that's not happening. So it was a crazy lineup from Eddie Howe that obviously didn't work out.

23:44Gab Marcotti:They were 2-0 down from the first leg. They weren't going to overturn it anyway. So that's what I mean.

23:48Julien Laurens:It was another priority. He didn't care. Mo Pep Gab, he gave a pretty extraordinary press conference prior to this game. So on Tuesday, where he veered away from football.

23:57Gab Marcotti:Yeah, I mean, I wasn't there, but I read the accounts of it. I saw the transcript. This comes on the back of him on Thursday, speaking in Barcelona about where, again, he kind of went outside of football into what's going on in the world. I don't think any normal person is going to take issue with what he says when he talks about that humanity is so advanced, you know, we can go to the moon, but yet we're killing each other. And he says how much it hurts him to see people suffering around the world. And he mentions Ukraine and Russia and Gaza, uses the word genocide, which some people take issue with, and for which he suffered backlash.

24:44Gab Marcotti:Again, I'm not getting into it. Make up your own mind. Then he mentioned Sudan, which is kind of funny because he's talking about the rapid response forces in Sudan and the civil war that's going on there, a lot of suffering. So Sudan has cited the United Arab Emirates in front of the International Court of Justice. In other words, his boss, the people pay his salary, for financing these other forces. We'll see where that complaint leads. So it's, yeah, and of course he weighs in on the events in Minneapolis as well. with the killing of Rene Good and Alex Preti. And he says, how can this be defended?

25:26Gab Marcotti:I don't know how this is going to go down. We've talked before about his mood, trying to read that. It's not something that we're accustomed to. People are taught to keep their thoughts to themselves. I think if this continues, I think there's going to be some sort of reaction, whether it encourages other people to speak up or whether there's just a backlash and people are just going to say, stay in your lane. You know, you can't use your bully pulpit for this.

25:55Julien Laurens:I mean, you can try with Pep, but he will never stop speaking his mind out, which I think is great for him, whether you agree or not. I think people should, I know only football has a lot of people say, but he's a massive, massive public figure, and he has strong opinions, and I think it's right for him to express them and say exactly what he thinks.

26:15Gab Marcotti:And I think he realizes that people will point to a certain hypocrisy as well, given where his employer, given Abu Dhabi, given Emirates and the situation there. Even more, Pep. He's very angry that Mark Gay didn't get to play in this game and will lobby the FA about it.

26:35Julien Laurens:Well, good luck with that, because I think Cup Ties rules have been going on for a long, long time since transfers exist. And City knew what they were. Exactly. And they knew that Gay was six months away from three agencies. I don't know why he would argue before and what the lobby would be. Unlike, can you please allow a player to play with two different clubs in the same cup? Well, no, the league is different. Well, it's not that. It's not so much that.

27:00Gab Marcotti:It's the deadline for it was mid-January. Which makes sense again.

27:04Julien Laurens:So I'm not really sure what was going on about. Roma, I fall away to Udinese back on Monday night in Serie A. Gab, they're back to fifth now.

27:13Gab Marcotti:Yeah, and more than the result, Udinese scoring with a great goal from Ekelenkamp. I mean, deflected, but then he had another straight. He's quite a player, as is, by the way. I've spoken to you about him off here. Artur Atta. How about that? People compare him to Zidane, I guess, just because he's of Algerian descent, but he's some player. But yeah, I thought this was a disappointing performance from Roma. Maybe fifth place will be enough to get you in the Champions League. but I want to see more from Gasperini. Barcelona through to the Copa del Rey semifinal with a 2-1 win away to Albacete. Jules, this was one-way traffic and we saw Ronaldo Araujo score on his first start since being sent off against Chelsea in the Champions League in November.

27:57Julien Laurens:Yes, he's played lately a bit more. He came back, remember he was not in a good place to play football at the time after that red card and he took some time off and it's really good to see him smiling again, to see him playing and scoring again and leading this team. Very important. Albacete, the team that knocked out Real Madrid, of course, and Arbelova. They did the job very professionally. Barcelona, and they're in another semifinal, as you said.

28:20Gab Marcotti:And, yeah, I don't know that, I don't think Araujo's particularly good anymore. I think, I don't know if he's going to come back to the level he was supposed to be at three years ago.

28:29Julien Laurens:He's still a good player.

28:30Gab Marcotti:But I'll tell you what, given the options in Barcelona's defence, why not?

28:35Julien Laurens:No Leao, no Policic, but Milan beat Bologna on the road 3-0 on Tuesday. than Agap, 22 games unbeaten now in Serie A. Is it enough to challenge Inter, who are five points clear?

28:44Gab Marcotti:Well, that's the particularity of football, right? You were saying how good the Arsenal defence is. There were stories all over Gazette de la Sport in Italy about how good the Milan defence is because they've gone 22 games unbeaten. You know what? I don't think there's a single player in the Milan defence who I would put ahead of anybody in the Arsenal defence. Because in those 22 games, they also have a bazillion draws, which is why they're five points behind. this team isn't clicking it offensively. I'm not judging it based on this game because obviously Leal, Pulisic weren't there, Foucault came off the bench.

29:17Gab Marcotti:But drawing a bunch of games in Serie A and not getting beat, which is the Allegri kind of tortoise method, when you're not playing in Europe and have been knocked out of Copa Italia, yeah, that might be one way to go. But they ain't winning the title unless they step it up. Also back on Monday, Sunderland trounced Burnley 3-0. Jules, this table is so tight that despite the fact that they've won just two of their last eight, Roger and Lebris' boys are just four points from a Champions League spot. And you very rudely left them out in our Champions League discussion.

29:50Julien Laurens:I would love Regis Lebris to take Sunderland into the Champions League. Oh, sorry, Regis. I called you Roger. Sorry. But I don't think it will happen. However, they don't really care. All they want is to stay up and they're very close from staying up. They play Arsenal on Saturday at the Emirates. Three points in the bag. Yeah, that might not be then but they're not far at all from having enough points especially when you see how

30:12Gab Marcotti:do I need to remind you what happened the last time they played Arsenal

30:15Julien Laurens:yeah they had a really good draw but they don't have a Grand Chaka in this game but even without Grand Chaka they were far too good for a Burnley team that didn't even have a shot on target in this whole game Inter mix it up and beat Torino 2-1 to advance to the Coppa d 'Italia semi-final gap we saw goals from two Paris born and bred boys of course and another making his debut

30:33Gab Marcotti:that's right Andy Ju for Angelo Ange-Juan. Ange-Juan, yeah. Of course, getting the goals. Nice to see Kivu play some of the kids he worked with before, Koki at left back. And the other one, Isiaka Katama, who is from something sous bois, which I'm guessing is, well, I'm not guessing. I looked on a map.

30:57Julien Laurens:Yeah. He qualifies as Paris Born and Bread. Absolutely. There you go.

31:01Gab Marcotti:Enjoy that. Jules, you'd question our boy Roberto de Zerbi after the meltdown last weekend. Does Marseille's 3-0 win over Rennes in the Coupe de France turn you once more into Believer?

31:12Julien Laurens:Believer, I'm not sure. I'm not there yet. I want to be, but I'm not there yet. But certainly that's what I needed.

31:17Gab Marcotti:Did Jacquet play in this game?

31:19Julien Laurens:Jacquet played in this game.

31:19Gab Marcotti:Because I didn't notice him stop keeping the goals out. No, I mean, the poor kid.

31:23Julien Laurens:They were all over the place. They've been struggling, really. There was a fight in the dressing room after the game, too. But for Marseille, who scored after a minute and 30 seconds or something, it was perfect.

31:35Gab Marcotti:That boy Guiri again.

31:37Julien Laurens:Yeah, but not that they played that great. And they had a late goal too. But they did the job like they needed to. And then on Sunday, it's obviously the Classic in Paris. So at least they're ready for that. And they have a bit more tranquility to prepare for it. Real Sociedad come from behind to beat Alaves in the Copa del Rey. 3-2 and qualify for the semifinal as well. Gab, our boy, Rino Matarazzo does it again. Still undefeated. How about that? He did get a bit of a little lucky in this game.

32:03Gab Marcotti:because the two won down and then Alaves missed the penalty. A crazy pen that should have never been awarded. Probably should not have been awarded. Gonzalo Guedes scored a great goal and then was Oscarsson on the break late on. They win 3-2. Onwards and upwards, Reno.

32:16Julien Laurens:Absolutely.

32:17Gab Marcotti:Jules, time to talk Cristiano. And by the way, today we all celebrate his birthday. Yes. 41 years young. That's true. Now he's back in training after reportedly going on strike and missing the game at the weekend to register his unhappiness at the lack of El Nasser transfer dealings. But this whole version of the event, by the way, it doesn't come from him. It comes from Aboua in Portugal, who we believe he's talking to or somebody's talking to.

32:44Julien Laurens:Yeah, I mean, they hinted at it as well. Very unhappy with the fact that PIF, who owns, as we say, the biggest clubs in the Saudi League, not 100%, but, you know, at least 75%, that PIF allowed Al-Hilal to have a pretty spectacular transfer window in January with seven new signings, one being Karim Benzema. And on the other hand, Al-Nasser, Cristiano's club, also owned by PIF, got nothing.

33:16Gab Marcotti:No, they got Abdul Karim from the Iraqi midfielders, 21.

33:19Julien Laurens:So he said, like, this is unfair. Euclidia are advantaging the biggest rivals. There's one point in the table between the two. and they've been rivals forever. So this is not fair. I'm not happy. I'm going on strike. I'm not playing. They have a game tomorrow, Al Nasser. They don't know yet if he's going to play. The club believes. I was told that he was going to play tomorrow, but he's back at training, which is good. But by the way, the Al Hilal transfer window was not paid by PIF. It's nothing to do with PIF. The 25 % owned not by PIF, the Prince Al-Walid, who has a lot of money, basically financed all of it.

33:57Julien Laurens:So, you know, Al Nassar didn't have that.

34:00Gab Marcotti:I think at some point we need to stop with the circus here. Bro, if you're going to do this, you come out, you issue a statement, and you say, you don't do it through weirdo back channels, Ebola, this and that, right? Come out and say, this is why I'm not playing. I'm not happy. Number one. Number two, maybe do it earlier when you could still have some sort of effect, not when the transfer window is closed. Number three, realize in your castle of dreams that, A, not only are you one point behind at the top of the table, so you can still have a chance to win. There's something fundamentally bizarre.

34:33Gab Marcotti:You don't talk about what's bizarre and unfair. It's not just the PIF situation. It's the fact that so much money is being spent and thrown into a furnace, largely to you, or not largely to you, but a lot of it goes to you. I'd just be grateful. You're in a different country. They have a different way of doing things. Just deal with it.

34:53Julien Laurens:It's not all about you. Great summer transfer window, more than Ali Hilal. So, you know. More Milan, Gab, they had a deal in place to take Jean-Philippe Mateta on loan from Crystal Palace. But after taking two separate medicals, he was sent back to London.

35:07Gab Marcotti:Okay. So it was funny. So there's a tradition here in England where we live, where people watch Sky Sports News on transfer deadline day. And in past years, it's been very exciting. Today was not exciting. Today, it was all about every 20 minutes, like, ooh, will Jean-Philippe Mateta pass his medical? I could have told you the night before. No, he will not pass his medical. He took a medical in London and then flew to Italy to do more medicals. I'm 99 % certain Milan were never going to sign him. They just spent money, not spent money, but they just taken Fulkrug on loan, right? Fulkrug is kind of like the ugly version of Mateta.

35:46Gab Marcotti:They already have Pulisic and Leal. They have Santi Jimenez, too, who's injured right now, but he's going to be back at some point. They have no European football. Nobody needs this many strikers. They really don't. So I don't know what happened. This is weird agent stuff. Milan doing somebody a favor by letting him see his doctor. I don't know. Maybe his medical plan at Palace was... So you think he's not injured? There's nothing wrong with his knee? I think there's something wrong with his knee, but I think they knew it ahead of time, and I don't think they were ever going to sign him. Tottenham Hotspur have signed 18-year-old James Wilson on loan with an option to make the deal permanent.

36:17Gab Marcotti:Jules they reportedly beat out Arsenal to get him help Spurs fans get excited

36:21Julien Laurens:yeah I mean it looks very promising he's still very young and it's not ready for the Premier League just yet but it's good I guess to be your rivals and have

36:28Gab Marcotti:him in the squad not ready for hearts either since you only started one game

36:31Julien Laurens:this season more Milan Redbird have paid off their loan to Elliot Gab what does

36:36Gab Marcotti:this mean for the club well it's interesting so Elliot obviously for sure Elliot have done very well out of this because they bought the club for about They didn't buy the cup for$300 million, but they made the loan to the Chinese guys and then didn't pay it back. In the end, Elliott had spent something like$740 million to acquire Milan, and they got$1.2 billion back. So that's really, really good business, and they won things, and they learned a lot. From Milan's perspective, yeah, it means Redbird are now in charge. Redbird had to borrow. They basically refinanced. It's not like Redbird found$700 million of their own to pay this loan off.

37:09Gab Marcotti:They did it via some vehicle called Comvest in Florida. This is what's known as private lending that you might have learned about. I think there's more questions, but the key thing is now Elliot, who would get involved, now are out and they won't be involved. If you're ready for an oil change, trust the professional parts people at O 'Reilly Auto Parts to recommend the best products for your vehicle. Right now, get five quarts of Valvoline full synthetic motor oil and a Wix filter for$35.99 and receive a$15 O 'Reilly gift card after rebate. upgrade to a Wix XP oil filter for just$2 more. Limits apply.

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39:03Gab Marcotti:Pauli 3-0 to advance to the German Cup semi-final where they'll face Stuttgart who trounced Holstein Kiel also 3-0. Jules, who is best equipped to get to the final?

39:13Julien Laurens:I think it'd be a great semi-final gap because they're two attacking teams. It would be open, it would be entertaining I think. Remember the league game in Leverkusen at the start of January after the winter break where Stuttgart went and won 4-1 because they were so good in transition and so efficient and Leverkusen struggled a bit with that. So I hope we have a repeat. I still think that Stuttgart have what he needs in terms of the games and the players they have to beat this Bayer Leverkusen team. But I think he'd be quite open.

39:44Gab Marcotti:The other semifinals, which are next week pretty tasty as well, it's Bayern against Leipzig. And then am I right thinking it's Hertha Berlin in the other one? Against Freiburg perhaps? The quarter-final, you mean? Yeah, because you said semi-finals. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.

39:59Julien Laurens:Yeah, so we could have very tasty semifinals all in all. More Elliott, Gabi, but a different kind this time. Liverpool and Aston Villa are reportedly looking to restructure his loan. I see what you did there. Harvey Elliott's loan. So he can actually get on the pitch.

40:12Gab Marcotti:Yeah, so first of all, Harvey Elliott having made so much money off the refinancing of the Milan deal, like I said, 1.2 billion, and he only put in 740 million of his own money, he's probably now the wealthiest footballer in the world. I'm just kidding. It's a different Elliott. This is a footballer. Sorry, I'm being stupid. All right, so this is the genesis of this. When Harvey Elliott moved to Aston Villa, it was on loan, and the deal was if he made at least 10 appearances, Villa would have to have an obligation to buy$35 million. This was a Monchi deal because Monchi was there at the time. Suited Liverpool just fine.

40:52Gab Marcotti:Arnest Lott, as we know, not really a fan. So he plays a bunch of games. I think he's gotten to eight or nine appearances. And then they're like, wait a minute. And he's not very good either. Hasn't been. But you know what? Yeah, but still. He's a good player who maybe hasn't played well in those appearances. It's also hard when you have a whole chunk of time without playing. They're saying, hang on a minute. We don't really want to spend$35 million, so he just won't play. so I thought the right solution would be for Liverpool to bring him back from his loan because I think he can help Liverpool obviously they feel differently, they're keeping him around so they're trying to negotiate a way to turn the obligation to buy into some sort of option to buy, it might cost him more money bottom line here is Villa, like we've told you and a lot of people for some reason Villa and Chelsea are under settlement agreement with UEFA for breaching financial sustainability rules if they don't hit those targets If they breach those rules again, they are automatically getting banned for a minimum of one year.

41:52Gab Marcotti:Right? This is the reality of it. And those rules, by the way, those benchmarks they have to hit are tougher than the normal ones, obviously, because that's part of their punishment. So that's why Villa have to be cautious. You can sit and shout, why aren't they spending? Why aren't Bali and Bolik spending? Why isn't Sawiris spending money? This is the reality of the situation they're in. Kareem Benzema is staying in Saudi Jewels,

42:15Julien Laurens:but he has a new club. He has a new club. He left Ali Tihad, where he was out of contract in June anyway. And the contract extension, as we mentioned in the last few shows, he felt very disrespectful about it. And he moved to Ali Hilal, as we said earlier. Quite top of the league. Yeah, great. He's moving from sixth to first, jumping on the bandwagon. Absolutely, which angered Cristiano massively in a team that he knows a lot of people already, from, you know, Koulibaly to Mendy to et cetera. It's good for him. He's very happy. He could have come back to Europe, he could have gone to different leagues.

42:50Julien Laurens:One of the reasons as well why he stayed is because he's got an image-right contract with the Saudi Pro League, like a lot of those big, big names that moved to Saudi until 2030. And if you leave before that or too early, then you miss out on a lot of money as well. But I'm very excited to see him in this new team. Yeah, I mean, good. Team Weir has drawn criticism from his national team head coach, Mauricio Pochettino. Gab, what happened?

43:16Gab Marcotti:so he gave an interview you were telling me it was like a month ago where he was talking about the he's talking about the world cup and holly said was he says i'm just a bit disappointed by the ticket prices lots of real fans will miss matches and we've heard all about the dynamic pricing and stuff like that um i don't think this is something offensive to say i think it's something that a lot of people agree with that if you you know if you can't take advantage of certain channels you're going to be shut out of this. Mauricio Pochettino, for some reason, decides that he needs to pick him up on this.

43:51Gab Marcotti:Yeah. He's asked about it. Rather than just saying, everybody has their own opinion, whatever, right? He says, I think players need to talk on the pitch, playing football, not outside. It is not his duty to evaluate the price of the ticket. We are not politicians. We are sport people that only we can talk about our job. Okay, so a couple of things here, Poch. I don't know. Like I said, you need to listen to the people who you pay to be your media and PR advisors. Right? No, because this is such a stupid, stupid thing to say. Right? First of all, it's not politicians who set prices for the World Cup.

44:29Gab Marcotti:Yeah. It's the market. It's dynamic pricing. It's football people at FIFA who've decided that they're going to employ dynamic pricing. Right? It's as simple as that. Secondly, everybody's entitled to their opinion. Thirdly, he is speaking as somebody who I presume was a fan and will be a fan once he leaves. And it's true that ticket prices are high. And to come out and say, you know, it's not his duty to evaluate it. No, it's not his duty, but he chooses to have a position. You know, this whole, like, stay in your lane, we talked about Pep Guardiola earlier in the show. It is the polar opposite.

45:08Gab Marcotti:it yeah and honestly like you have one job focus on the world cup don't say things that make you seem like out of touch disconnected and just like a bit of something that rhymes with stick in my view the fa is considering seeding the women's fa cup um presumably in an effort to make sure that the best teams face each other. The four biggest teams all reach the semifinals? Yeah. Not surprisingly, many hate this idea.

45:39Julien Laurens:No, because again, you go against the ethic, I guess, of A-Cup competition in this sense, which is anybody can draw anybody. You could have minnows against top clubs and cause an upset. You could have early on big clashes between two top clubs. It doesn't matter. That's the draw. That's the beauty of the draw. All right. Why would you start seeding things and change things?

45:59Gab Marcotti:All right. I'll play devil's advocate here. and by a caveat, I don't believe for a minute what I'm about to say, but this would be their argument. First of all, dear Jules, seeding happens in football tournaments all the time. The Champions League is seeded, for example. Secondly, the FA Cup is already seeded because the top teams don't come in until the later rounds. So it's not true that everybody can play everybody. Thirdly, Jules, we don't necessarily need to take instruction because the men's FA Cup has been going one way since it was founded in 1882 or whatever it was, doesn't mean the women have to follow the same rules.

46:39Gab Marcotti:And fourthly, there's an economic imperative here. Arsenal, City, Chelsea, Manchester United outdraw everybody else and much better everybody else. It's in the interest in growing the women's game, which is my job at the FA Cup to have these teams play each other in competitive semifinals on television for a natural audience rather than face each other in the third round or whatever it is early on.

47:03Julien Laurens:Let's just go straight into, let's put Arsenal, City, Chelsea and Manchester United already straight in the quarterfinals, have an FA Cup for all the rest and the fourth that will come out of that FA Cup for the Paws then can play the big clubs in the quarterfinals. We would know who wins and then you will have your semifinals with your four best teams. or just go straight to the semifinals with those four best teams and then the final. And then that's it. Let's just drop the... I send some note of sarcasm here from you, Jules. I think it's ridiculous. Arsenal won the FIFA... Talking about ridiculous.

47:36Julien Laurens:Arsenal won the FIFA Champions League Cup last weekend.

47:39Gab Marcotti:Just the FIFA Champions Cup.

47:40Julien Laurens:Champions League is a UEFA trademark. The FIFA Champions Cup... We don't want to get you in trouble with FIFA and UEFA and their lawyers. The FIFA Champions Cup last weekend against Krovin Tien, remember? And FIFA announced a new sponsor for that competition. That's great, Gab, no?

47:53Gab Marcotti:it's fantastic just something a little weird about it so the sponsor so we already have one weird weirdo sponsor which is michelle kang's company uh canisca who well first of all like they don't actually sell any product they're not consumer facing and you're being sponsored by literally somebody who owns three teams which is just weird yeah um unless of course you're the public investment fund of saudi arabia and saudi pro league i don't know if that's the right business model we want to follow the weird thing here um is the sponsor sadia ramco who you know have shown a willingness to invest in in women's sports and stuff like that but their sponsorship was announced after the semi-final so basically they'd already played like the preliminary rounds semi-final only final left it's like hey look we're sponsoring this too now they just waited to see who was in the final this is just a way to give fifa money which i'm not against it the money's going to go to women's been ring fence for women's development women's football around the world but can we just stop pretending that this is a normal business enterprise yeah because it really isn't because one owner sponsoring it you know her team's not in it but their team could be in it yeah and another guy coming in and just saying like all right johnny how much money you need let me write you a check oh yeah sure i'll just sponsor this competition oh but it's almost over that's fine let's just backdate it you know come on like there's got to be better ways to do this longs be 3-4-2 in the coupe de france says alan saint maximen made his debut after returning from club america in mexico jules there's a really ugly backstory here yeah there is because

49:29Julien Laurens:he left uh only after six months arriving in in mexico on his social media he said that But him and his family, his children especially, were victims of racism and abuse while they were in Mexico, which the club denied.

49:47Gab Marcotti:The club is in Club America, because Lawrence has supported him.

49:50Julien Laurens:Yeah. I mean, I would want to believe him. I know him quite well. I'm not sure he would say that if it wasn't true. Maybe just never adapted to Mexico either. I don't know. I didn't really follow what he did over there. It's a great coup for Lance, by the way, and to bring him back to Ligue 1 is great because he's so talented that on his day, on a good day, he can be almost unstoppable on the pitch. But this is a sad way. You know, whatever happened exactly is sad. And for him to feel like that and take on social media to say is wrong.

50:23Gab Marcotti:As a fellow girl dad myself, this really struck a chord with me when he mentioned his daughters being abused, because obviously racist abuse is unacceptable, even if you are the footballer who's being abused. And that applies to everybody from Alan Sam X-Men to Vini. But when you start racially abusing family members on top of that, to me, that's far more aggravating. That makes everything even worse than something that is already terrible. I just really wonder what kind of people we're talking about here. 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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52:06Julien Laurens:They're the ones with the bear on the box. Morocco said they will appeal the fines to earning$415 ,000 and a ban for two players after being punished by CAF for events in the African Club of Nations final. Remember all the problems that were there? Senegal, who walked off the pitch in that final before coming back because of that penalty, and were hit with a bigger fine, even than Morocco, and two suspensions plus one for the coach Papetio, have no appeals.

52:36Gab Marcotti:Yeah, well, I'm not surprised Senegal did not appeal because this is, dare I say it, kind of a slap on the wrist. In the greater context of things, if you look at what happened to other clubs that have walked off. They got to be champions. you know they've got two guys suspended for a couple afghan qualifiers big deal there's 24 teams who qualify for the afghan senegal will qualify anyway yeah um if you want to make this meaningful say they're going to be suspended for the afghan exactly for example uh but of course they're not doing it that way uh it seems like kaf just wants this whole thing to go away um morocco are appealing i think their players it's all stuff to do with the ball boys as well and the towels.

53:19Gab Marcotti:It's not a good look, but how do you put walking off the pitch in the same category as this? Yeah, I agree. I don't know. This whole thing, they just want to wish it away. I don't think they should. I think they should take serious action, make it meaningful. It's time! It's time! It's Texter time! We told you how our hero, John Texter and his guys, had been deposed from the board of Eagle football holdings with help from Aries, who of course are the fund that loaned him the money.

53:48Julien Laurens:Yeah, it's not even his money.

53:50Gab Marcotti:But Jules, he insists.

53:52Julien Laurens:He's still in charge. He is the majority shareholder. He is, and he's Adamant. He's still the boss, and he's clinging on and hanging on. And I mean, as much fun as he brought us on the show, right, with all his stories, the intrepid, as you call them, it's time to go, JT. I think we all agree on that, right? It's been a disaster. What happened at Lyon? What happened in Belgium? I mean, we could... Molenbeek. Yeah, we could go on and on and on, even to San Jose and Botafogo. He won the title at Botafogo. What do you want? Since then, it looks like they don't want him there anymore. It's tough, but just let go.

54:28Gab Marcotti:Let it go and join us. We've got a seat here right in the middle for you. We can't wait to hear all your opinions on football. Come hang out with us.

54:36Julien Laurens:Brian Zaragoza has a new home. He has joined Roma and a great agent, clearly. Gab, right place to relaunch his career? I don't know. What a weird career.

54:45Gab Marcotti:Hugo, do you remember when he first came up and signed for Bayern Munich? That game against Real Madrid. Remember? It was incredible. It was incredible. It was on that game. No, it was.

54:54Julien Laurens:A little tiny guy. No, on that game. The ball sticks to him.

54:56Gab Marcotti:You're thinking like, oh, look, this is like sort of a miniature, thin, messy without the finishing talent, but he can dribble. I don't know. It just makes very little sense to me because I don't think he fits the way Gasperini wants to play. I don't think he's going to get much playing time. Maybe Gasperini sees him as like a guy who can break the game off the bench, go off, win a few free kicks, run at people. Maybe he's like, oh, look, Chico Conceição is little in dribbles, so maybe Brian Zaragoza can be little in dribble too. I don't know. It's a real odd one. This is not odd. The return of the hero.

55:32Gab Marcotti:The man who helped deliver the greatest story, the greatest story ever told in a footballing context. N 'Golo Kante back in Europe, Jules.

55:42Julien Laurens:Yes, at the age of 34, Gabi has left Ali Tihar in Saudi Arabia to go to Fenerbahce in Turkey. A move that almost didn't happen because there were some problems when he tried to register the transfer on the platform that FIFA uses. TMS, FIFA's transfer matching system. Exactly, which every club uses. Clearly, some clubs better than others. I promise you, it's not even that complicated to use TMS. But anyway, it happened that this was too late. So initially we thought, oh, that's not going to happen. The appeal of FIFA, I think even the Turkish president, Erdogan, got involved. And in the end, I think FIFA looked at it and said, okay, yeah, it was just a malfunction of the website or something.

56:26Julien Laurens:And the deal went through. It also meant that Yusuf and Naziri went the other way from Fenerbahce to Ali Teal to replace Karim Benzema, who left Ali Teal. We mentioned that earlier. And for Conte, he was still very good. he's only 34 but still running like uh like when he was 24. it's a i think it's a great story for abaccio spent a lot of money by the way in this transfer window with a lot of very rich people who support the club uh bringing some money in to be able to do that it's great i think that gives him a better chance even to make the french french world the french squad for the world cup so i hope it works out really well for him.

57:04Gab Marcotti:He's 26 team people that Didi Deschamps can bring to the World Cup. France are absolutely stacked. You can put one spot aside for him. He should be grandfathered in simply because he's N 'Golo Kante. Then decide if you play him, when you play him, how you play him. I'm with you. But he needs to be there.

57:21Julien Laurens:Yeah, I think he will be. James Rodriguez, remember him? He's reportedly in talks with Minnesota United. Are you excited?

57:29Gab Marcotti:I am excited. I want to see this guy play. I want to see this left foot. I mean, honestly, and I don't say this. Look, obviously, there's better footballers out there, and he's older, and he doesn't run, and he probably never ran. Yeah. But is there somebody who strikes the ball better? I don't know. Like, honestly, people, we were talking earlier about Arsenal set pieces, and obviously, Arsenal have tremendous set piece deliveries. Declan Rice wouldn't obviously strike you as a set piece guy. He delivers the ball perfectly, and Saka, and whoever else. I don't know who the third guy is. Madwekin with someone's soccer now.

58:02Julien Laurens:And did well against Leeds.

58:03Gab Marcotti:Okay. But is there anybody who delivers a ball better left-footed than James Rodriguez? No, you're right.

58:09Julien Laurens:And also, he scored one of the greatest goals in World Cup history anyway.

58:13Gab Marcotti:Come on. Roll on, Minnesota. I don't quite know. Does he know that, like, because this MLS season is going to start in March, right? Does he know that it's still going to be freaking cold?

58:24Julien Laurens:Yeah, man. I don't know if he knows that. Has he trained even in the last few months because he's been with our club anyway? I would like to see if he's in shape or not for example but good luck to him in MLS if he goes

58:35Gab Marcotti:Newell's old boys say they are working to bring Lionel Messi back to Rosario in 2027 Jules

58:42Julien Laurens:I love fairy tales I want to see this Disney ending do you? yes of course Gabby I think the whole world wants to see that and he would not be for too long he would only be for six months at the start of the 2027 2027 year because that's when the the MLS fixture calendar changes. So there will be a time there where MLS don't have games. So it'd be perfect for him to be able to go and play there and then go back to Inter Miami, which whom he's under control until 2028. So I think on paper, it looks like perfect. He obviously is from Rosario, played there until he was 13 and left for La Masia. It's the dream of everybody there to see him back.

59:23Julien Laurens:I think it's his dream. He's mentioned it publicly already to play in Argentina one day. If it's not now, after 2028, I think he'd be probably too old even to go back to Argentina and play for them. So why not? It's more complicated than that with all obviously the money and the contract and everything. But it'd be so nice if it was happening. Yeah, I wonder.

59:44Gab Marcotti:What if my dream of seeing him and Cristiano play together? If Cristiano's a free agent or semi-retired at that point? No? No.

59:52Julien Laurens:In a rare interview with Sky News, FIFA President Gianni Infantino had a few things to say. He said that Trump definitely deserved the Nobel Prize. He said that both costs don't achieve anything and that we have to end Russia's ban from football.

1:00:05Gab Marcotti:Yes, a couple of things here. First of all, as you know, he doesn't give one-on-one interviews. He gave one to Sky News. He did not give it to Sky News' sports correspondent, Rob Harris, a fine colleague we've known for many years. Rob Harris' nickname is Trouble. You can see why he wouldn't necessarily want to speak to him. He spoke to somebody else. what i take issue with okay i don't have any he said the stuff about the noble prize he said it before he's going to keep saying he's not going to change his mind now yeah that would be that's kind of stupid the boycotts don't achieve anything he he didn't make a i think a pretty valid point is that you want football to boycott for whatever reason but then on this government's boycott so You put a total stop on the economy in trading with somebody.

1:00:56Gab Marcotti:Why should football lose out when the rest of the country does not? So I thought that was actually. Yeah, I think he does have a point there. On the Russian ban from football, he says, well, it doesn't achieve anything. You know what? It does achieve stuff. It says this is not normal. And whatever your views are on Russia and Ukraine and whatever, it's not normal in the eyes of sporting organizations, of the United Nations, of many, many countries around. world that they would go and invade parts of a different sovereign nation. That's not normal. So I think he's completely wrong on this. I see no benefit to ushering them back.

1:01:32Gab Marcotti:Probably will. Maybe part of a peace deal. Hopefully there will be a peace deal. But I think he's not reading the room on that one at all. Yeah. Joseph, this brings us to an end. Yeah. But don't worry. We're going to be back on Monday. Plenty of big games coming up this weekend. Big game for Manchester City as well. Liverpool. Until then, love the game, love your neighbor, love yourself.

1:02:06Julien Laurens:From 30 for 30 Podcasts.

1:02:16Julien Laurens:Brian Pata, senior defensive lineman from Miami. Gunned down.

1:02:21Gab Marcotti:The key to this case, it's riot. Boy, he's ripping. An hour before he died, he was on the phone arguing what's about. This might be a hit. You want the truth. They just want a conviction. They're placed under arrest. We had a killer amongst us. Murder at the U. Listen now.