Gab & Juls Show: Will Carrick get the Man Utd job full time?

20:48Absolutely.

20:49Julien Laurens:Not actually done by that call. Furious. Furious with the referee. It almost seemed like a preemptive foul call, right? Yeah, yeah. The second incident, of course, the ball comes into the box off a corner kick. it's Malik Jouf and Brian Diaz Brian Diaz goes down, Malik Jouf holding him, whether he throws him to the ground or not not entirely clear but his arms are up that to me is something that for me that should be a penalty if you haven't been calling it the whole game I can understand why you start calling in the 7th minute of injury time that's a problem but it's a foul from Jouf on Diaz grabbing his neck and kind of pulling back, even if it's a little bit soft, sure, but you should not do that.

21:35Julien Laurens:And I think Duce's reaction says it all anyway. He realized the mistake that he's made. Diaz was calling for the VAR to review it, calling for the penalty. He got reviewed. He got the penalty. And then obviously hell unfolded. Yes. After that, obviously a lot of protests, very unruly. And then almost all the Senegal players, Sadio Mane stayed. And by the way, We're watching this game on television. Hey, newsflash. I wasn't in Rabat. I'm told that it wasn't the only Senegal player who stayed out there. Yeah, they were through the game. I think Edouard Mendy stayed. The camera's obviously on. And you see Pap Show, the head coach, saying, come on, let's go, let's go back in, let's go back in.

22:13All right, we've seen this before, taking players off the pitch. Actually, you weren't even born, though, the last time it happened in a national competition, in a men's competition. I think it happened with the women at the World Cup, if I'm not mistaken, a couple of World Cups ago. But I'm thinking about France against Kuwait in 1982.

22:28Julien Laurens:Yeah, I was born, but I was very... You don't remember the game. I've seen it on television. But yeah, it's something similar. So it's not unprecedented. It's obviously... I mean, with hindsight, you can see the frustration. But you cannot do that. And by the rules, if you do that, you forfeit the game. Yeah, forfeit. I think they would have had a World Cup ban too. It's just not acceptable for a team because they were not happy with the referee, which we've always been. all of us have been at some point at every level part of having that feeling but it's not a reason to take your team off maybe it was a bit of mind games to put Brian Diaz off I think it was 18 minutes break he took his penalty in the 90th plus 24 if it's mind games or stupid mind games because the referee at any point can call an end to the game or he can book everybody for leaving the field to play there's many things he can do but there's no doubt that this obviously was, I think, a difficult time for Brahim Diaz to wait and get the ball.

23:28Julien Laurens:Then there was more wait as he put the ball on the spot. Mendy, Mane, the referee, all of that. And, I mean, he looked stressed from the first second when he was about to think about taking that penalty anyway. And then he takes the worst, one of the worst Panenka. I mean, why a Panenka at that time anyway? Unless you think you're Zidane, but you're not. Or talked against Australia. Yeah, not really the same than Zidane's World Cup final. But yeah, I don't know. But to try it and to have such a bad attempt at it. Can we rule this out? It's conspiracy theorists. He missed on purpose. No, he did not.

24:03And that is not his weaker foot. And then after that, it's almost as if Senegal are galvanized by it. And they really take over. And they score a tremendous goal.

24:15Julien Laurens:Yeah, amazing. And then they miss what would have been a goal for 2-0. What do you miss that? I said, all right, karma. Something's going to happen at the other end. They're going to equalize. Obviously, the walk-off is the big, big story here. Absolutely. And I think there's a couple things to unpack. One is, if the players had remonstrated, shouted, caused a brawl at the end, had a guy sent off, whatever, then I think people would have been more okay with it than walking off. Walking off. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think Senegal just really, in my view, they did something almost unprecedented and that just makes you look foolish and that is exceptionally risky.

25:03Julien Laurens:Yeah, yeah. And it's a bad look on you, obviously, on your team, on your country. It's a bad look for African football in general, I think. I don't know if it's African football in general. It's not like it's a bad look on Nigeria or Morocco or whatever. I didn't mention country. It's just the final of your continental competition. So this is it. Yeah, but it's not Senegal's responsibility to worry about that. Senegal's responsibility to go and try to win the game. No, no, no, I'm not saying it's their responsibility, but it's just a terrible look. It's the Afghan final, the whole world is watching, and this is what's happening.

25:33It could have been two other African countries.

25:36Julien Laurens:It doesn't matter. It's not about just Senegal. It's just this is the bad look. We never see this in no finals ever, and then this happens. And forever, this will be remembered. Do you remember the Afghan final that descended into chaos? Yeah, because the Senegalese players walked off. I know that that's how people think. I don't think that's how people should think. That's what Raghi said after the game, and I think he's completely right. Yeah, I don't know. I can understand he's upset, but I think it's a bit of a tri-cliché. I think we should move beyond that. It's a bad look for Senegal and for Papshaw.

26:10Yeah, yeah, yeah. I would assume, too, Papshaw was maybe in contact with somebody from the federation or something who said take them off.

26:17Julien Laurens:We saw Alhajou Jouf very close, talking to Mane, being on the phone. I wonder if Jouf was on the phone to somebody. I saw that too. Does he have a role with the team or is he just like a super fan? He seemed to have the accreditation that team staff members seemed to have or federations or something like that. So maybe he is. I don't know if I'd go for Alhajou for life advice. No, unless he's in contact with the sports minister. There has to be an investigation. there has to be Sadio Mane I would assume he stayed out there, he understood the situation the bottom line is after a certain amount of time and we don't know what it is, it's not in the laws of the game different tournaments have their own directives but if you take the players off the pitch you forfeit the game I think in every sport that is a basic rule so the obvious question is should the referee has said, all right, you guys are off the pitch for more than a minute for no reason.

27:17Is this some kind of protest?

27:18Julien Laurens:Is there a time limit? Game's over. Yeah, yeah. Game's over. You lose. I was wondering, as we said earlier. Is this what the referee should have done? I don't know. I don't know if there's a rule like that, if there's a time limit, if it's 10 minutes. There definitely is. A referee can award. Yeah, yeah. I don't know what he was waiting for. Was he waiting for them to come back? Because as we said, it was a break of 18 minutes. I think he was waiting for a word in his ear from CAF. and I think this is another thing, a referee in a final ideally should feel empowered to make this decision but on a human level he's like I can't take responsibility for this on my own I think I imagine he was in contact or maybe waiting and I think this is where CAF you don't want people stepping in but where the CAF had referees or whatever saying like listen this is what the rules say, it's your call, we will back you no matter what you, if you want to If you want them to forfeit the game, you have the right to do that.

28:11Maybe he was worried because he knew he had made a bad call. Maybe he did. Maybe he knew. Maybe word got to him that he had blown the two earlier calls. I don't know. That's the thing. We don't know. Refereeing is very difficult. We know that.

28:24Julien Laurens:And he had a bad game. I know. So we don't know. But he waited 18 minutes doing nothing until the Senegalese players came back. Not because he asked them to. I think it was quite 18 minutes. because I think the penalty was in the seventh minute of injury time. So I think it was closer. I think, again, I haven't timed it. So in the Keep newspaper, they said 18 minutes. The penalty was taken in 19th plus 24. Even if you take off the 17 that were played until the call was made and they walked off, it's still a long time for the referee to be there on the pitch and do nothing. So I don't know why he was waiting.

29:07Julien Laurens:not sure what happened there. In the end, they came back to, uh, to see Brian Diaz misses the penalty. When I think everybody was waited, that's the penalty. He's going to score. They're going to win. And Morocco were ready to, to celebrate. It's just an incredible, I don't think Brian Diaz ever recovered from this. I don't think he recovers from this. Uh, I don't know how you can, because this, I think scars you for your whole career. Really? Well, you have another chance at the world cup to go and do something special. So the thing about football is there's often, unless you're Zidane in a World Cup final, there's often another game where you can try to repair things.

29:45I'm sure he's had his setbacks as a footballer. It's going to be very difficult.

29:50Julien Laurens:I mean, he was player of the tournament, received his trophy when the whole stadium had left, obviously, very quickly, but he was still booed and insulted by his own fans, the few that stayed in. What a nightmare for him. And you wonder, too, is he going to want to play for Morocco again? Because obviously Brian Giaz, half Spanish, half Baraka, probably would have played for Spain if they called him up. But he has one cup for Spain. Oh, that's right. In the friendly. So what action should be taken? And forget the rules. Let's put the rules to one side, okay? Because there's a lot of things in an investigation.

30:28But just in terms of what seems fair now, what to you seems fair as punishment for Senegal?

30:34Julien Laurens:I think it's a fine probably in a couple of games behind closed doors in the next AFCON qualifiers now, because that's the next thing they will play, because obviously the World Cup is all settled. I can't see anything else. You can't take away the trophy, obviously. You can't. So you don't think there's a basis to do that? No, I don't think so. It seems extraordinary. I generally don't know what's going to happen. Morocco as we were talking off air a really powerful country in the FIFA sphere and I think within CAF too because they're bringing money they're putting a lot of money into the game and I don't even know if I were in Morocco and if I would want the AFCON to be awarded to me not based on what I did but based on the fact that the opposition did something bad and you had the chance to win it with that penalty and of course I had the chance to win it with my penalty we can also ask why was Brian Diaz There's just a lot of second test that we can do.

31:34But all that said, it feels a little bit wrong that you could win it. And then one thing for me that saves it for Senegal is that if we strip the nonsense incidents aside and you just look at the football, they were the better team in the final against the best team in Africa.

31:57Julien Laurens:The thing is, if you don't punish, in a way, Senegal, and ethically this was not the right thing to do for them to walk off and threat not to start the game again. But then the next team, the World Cup, the next AFCON, the Euros, the Copa America, whatever, we say, you know what, this is not a penalty. This is a referee's mistake. We're getting done here because that's exactly what. You could read on their lips. They were saying, like, you know, we got robbed here. They cheat. We got robbed. And that was the buildup. Because they said, we're getting cheated, just like Cameroon. We're cheated. Just like Nigeria.

32:31Julien Laurens:We're supposed to be cheated. So then everybody does the same. And the next time you do, well, let's do the same. And let's see if they score the penalty after 15 or 20 minutes where we're in the dressing room. I guarantee you 1 ,000 % that our old friend Pierluigi Colina is going to come out and say, hey, you walk off the pitch. You take your team off the pitch for anything other than racist incidents. You forfeit the game. Forfeit the game. But that's what the rules say. He might tell us that, hey, look, in World Cup, it's going to be, you guys are off the pitch. If your entire team is off the pitch for more than 30 seconds or whatever it is, game's over.

33:06No ifs, ands, or buts. And I think you have to do that. And again, this referee had the power to do that, and he chose not to.

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34:06Let's go again. Real Madrid beat Levante 2-0. But Jules, one shot on target in the entire first half. Booze and call for Florentino to resign. Pagnoladas everywhere. Not great.

34:18Julien Laurens:No, not great at all. I mean, the performance wasn't great. They scored on a penalty, got that, Kylian obtained and scored. And then on the corner, headed by Asensio, the rest was poor. Most of it, really. And you're right, the toxicity of the atmosphere within the Bernabeu, the ground, against the teams, against Vinicius, against Bellingham, against Florentino Perez, with calls very loud. You could hear them on television. They tried to mute them as best they could on television. Of course, yeah, I'm sure. Bad day, although they won. so I guess that's the most important but even from an Arbeloa point of view his press conferences are weird the football is strange everything is not right right now he doesn't have the reason people are pointing out that this is Florentino's worst week since 2006 in his first term where he ended up resigning I don't think he's going to resign here but it's obvious Real Madrid fans aren't just angry about the results and it's not as if they're all like Xabi Alonso fans and they're sad that he's gone.

35:19I think it's more the sense of drift that is really annoying them.

35:23Julien Laurens:Arsenal drop points with a near-need draw away and not to come Forest on Saturday but still see the lead at the top of the table grow. Gab, should Mikel Arteta be annoyed though? Like, you're a competitor you'll be annoyed because it could have been it's two points dropped you could look at it that way. They should be happy Arsenal played well. I saw Forest are a tough nut to crack. He can get Pelters for dropping Saka and for the fact that Martinelli wasn't very good, but so what? He's got to manage Xhaka's minutes is what he's been doing all season. The one thing I might pull him up on a little bit is Victor Yorchores, I thought, was poor.

35:57You've got Kai Havertz, the best on earth. But again, you know, my Havertz love. The Ola Aina thing, come on, he's pushed into it. That's not a penalty for me. No, I think there's the right corner. Tottenham lose at home to West Ham 2-1. More woe for the man with two first names. So at least he has a new first-team coach to help him.

36:16Julien Laurens:He has. He has Johnny Heitinger coming. I'm not sure how much of a help it will be because Thomas Frank could be gone very quickly now. Maybe by the time you listen to this podcast, maybe this Monday morning. Exactly. They're considering his future very much. It's just between what we see on the pitch, which is poor, very poor, a little less away from home, but suddenly at home, it's poor. This game, they were poor. His substitutions and in-game management is bad. What he says doesn't add up either. He says, like, we do some things really well. No, you don't. All that kind of stuff. It's inevitable that he's under massive pressure.

36:49Julien Laurens:And I just don't think after being in the job for almost eight months, that he's the right guy. And I would have turned this around before. Look, I'm very cognizant of the fact, especially with all the sackings we've had recently, that I could be totally wrong here. I'll tell you this much. I feel like Hitinga arriving, unless Spurs are the clown show from hell, suggests that he's going to be given more time. And the reason I say this is presumably Haitinga is there because Frank wanted him and approved him, right? Otherwise, Haitinga comes over to be part of Frank's staff, then you fire Frank, presumably his staff too, and you send Haitinga back to Amsterdam?

37:28Or does Haitinga come in as some kind of Judas? I think as a great interim coach,

37:32Julien Laurens:until you find another manager. You could also see... How would you feel if you were the manager and you bring in my successor? It's kind of like, you know those evil corporations where they make you hire a guy to train them to do your own job, and then that person replaces you? I don't know. True, but they briefed all week that they had constructive meetings with Thomas Frank with the signing of Conor Gallagher, with the arrival of Heitinger, and now they're briefing that they are thinking about sacking him. Yeah, that's not serious stuff. You can't go like this from one week to the next, I think.

38:05Julien Laurens:Well, I think when things are that bad. But then don't hire Heitinger. Well, unless he's there to stay, regardless of who's on the bench, really. Talking about Heitinger, his former club, Liverpool, and Burnley drew 1-1. I don't feel that Dominic Sobos-Lyne misses a penalty. Gab, are you going to say his variance? It is. It's karma. It's the yin and yang equalization of the universe. Early in the season, they won, what, five Premier League games in a row with all those late goals. Rio, 10th minute of injury time. Salah, 5th minute of injury time. Including against Burnley. Yeah, including against Burnley when they weren't particularly good.

38:38In this game, Soboslai aside, and you expect him to take the penalty better, but it was nowhere near as bad as Brian Diaz's penalty, by the way. No.

38:48You dominated this game. They could have won this game. They should have won this game. They should have. But it didn't work out, right? So it's balancing out. It doesn't change the fact this team needs to get better in double quick time. And Florian Vert's operating wide again. What's going to happen when Mo Salah comes back? By the way, lost the third-place match at the AFCON. I'm sure he's crushed about that. These are all questions. So Arnest Lott's work isn't done at all. My boy, Rino Matarazzo, is on fire, Jules. Real Sociedad beat Barcelona 2-1. The lead is down to a single point.

39:23Julien Laurens:Just a point, you're right, between them and Real Madrid. Matarazzo and Real Sociedad, great, although they can play this game 99 times again and they would not win it. You did park the bus. Barcelona I think he hit the woodwork The woodwork Four Five times Five times Four disallowed goals Some of them No problem Some for millimeters It was just one of those days Where I think Barcelona Could have played For another hour Okay maybe they would have Scored eventually But they had so many chances They were by far The better team They were One thing I would say Is that this was very Flickian In the sense that The defending is still garbage Yeah On both goals On the first one Koundé Koundé I mean what's going on with Koundé well also shouldn't there be somebody realizing Koundé might go to help in the middle so I need to track back behind I don't know and then on the second one Gonzalo Guelles has nobody within three meters of him how is this possible this time it's not the high line this time it's just bad defending Bayern Munich a terrifying gap they go a goal down away to Leipzig at halftime play Pauli in that first half and then Stormbach to win 5-1 away yeah not just that but Jamal Musiala comes on and lays on an assist.

40:35That guy's back in town too. It's insane. They're on pace to score 134 goals this season. The record is 101. They're on pace to get 94 points. The record is 91. I'm assuming they won't get the points total because late in the season they'll focus on the Champions League, whatever. The goals total, though, I think is still very much implied. They're just so much better than everybody else.

40:59Julien Laurens:Yeah, absolutely. This is way, way back on Friday, but it was so good. We had to have it high up on the show. Paris Saint-Germain beat Lille 3-0 and I'm pretty sure we will not see a better goal in 2026 than when Ousmane Dembele scored. Yeah, Ousmane Dembele's second goal. The first one was decent, to be fair too, but the second one is a piece of magic. Absolutely art. Beautiful to watch if you haven't seen it yet where he gets the ball and does a couple of tricks, a little hook and then the double touch and then the lob, the chip over the keeper. is just absolutely incredible. And it wasn't a soft chip.

41:35It was a chip where the ball moves. That is so difficult to do. Amazing.

41:39Julien Laurens:Liam Rossignol made his Premier League debut on the Chelsea bench on Saturday. And they beat Brent Fortuny. Gabi were there. What did you think? I thought, this was the first real test because Palmer, Cassado and whatnot, we're back. I thought they were very lucky. I think they could have easily lost this game. They were gifted a goal. There is a lot of work to do. he can emphasize the clean sheet all he likes but I think he knows that they have a lot of issues to work out. This isn't his team yet. I think that's pretty obvious. Sticking with Chelsea, they're linked with Rennes defender Jeremy Jacquet.

42:12Jules, should they be excited?

42:14Julien Laurens:Yeah, I think so. I mean, again, at 20, he's maybe the best defender of his generation, not just in France, but in Europe. Incredible talent. He's got everything. Paul Kubasi says, Hola! Yeah, I would go for Jacquet every single day. I would go for Jacquet every single time. Part of that incredible 05 generation with Matisse Stel and with Vizieridoué, of course, and Belosian. But it's shorter by the price. They want 80 million euros or 70 million euros. I'm not sure Chelsea are ready to pay that. Otherwise, they can just bring back Saar if they need another defender. Inter mix it up ahead of the Champions League clash with Arsenal by staying three points clear at the top of Serie A after a one-nil win over Udinese as Lautaro scores the only goal.

42:55It's Ballon d 'Or, Lautaro, to you. So, yeah, look, they scored early. The goal, by the way, is an absolute pitch.

43:01Julien Laurens:Lovely Pio Esposito. Yeah, Francesco Pio Esposito at the end. Ten consecutive passes, which by Italian standards is a ton. If you really want to, and of course he rested some players ahead of the Champions League game with Arsenal, you want to nitpick, should they be scoring a second goal because you never know what can happen to put it out of sight? Yeah, maybe, but they were very much in control. Borussia Dortmund nearly to Dortmund and throw away a two-goal lead against Sampaoli before Edmure Chan's late, late, late VAR penalty. Give them the three-point, Jules. I mean, we've said it all through the season, right, how entertaining they are because with them, you just don't know anything can happen anytime, all the time, even in a game that they control Adeyemi being very good and then Sampaoli just coming back and score two goals.

43:45Julien Laurens:You think, really? Two set-piece goals, as if you don't know. This is the only way Sampaoli is going to score. Exactly. And clearly not prepared. They got lucky in the end to get that penalty and that goal. And they probably win. they probably deserve to win the game. But it's not a way to go for the season. But based on XG, they deserve to win. The penalty, by the way, it's one of those where like, it's obviously a foul. It's a stupid foul. Yeah, yeah. But I don't... It's right on the corner. It's on the line of the... It looked to me that it was outside of the box. It looked to me too. Yeah, yeah.

44:15And I'm like, how do you know, Villar? I know. Presumably you're looking at the same picture as I am. Yeah, yeah. I don't know.

44:22Julien Laurens:I was not convinced. Yeah, it would have been bad. and Fabio Silva getting the start ahead of Gerasi again. Like you said, you should. That's a thing, yeah? Juventus stumbled away to Cagliari 1-0. Gab, are you going to blame Spalletti? No, I'm not. They played really, really well. How about some stats for you? Cagliari's first shot of any kind, he only took three shots, an XG of 0.11. Their first shot of any kind was like minute 59 or 55, something like that. And they scored on a shot. A few minutes after that, Juve created more chances. Juve played well. I think he's got a decent balance now.

45:01He's put his face in Fabio Miretti, the Italian De Bruyne, as he called himself. This is because after he's an egomaniac, but after his debut, he's like, who do you model yourself on? It's like, well, one day I want to be the Italian De Bruyne. Like, okay. All right. All right. Get his name out of your mouth for now, please. But this is the Juve sphere, right? So like, oh, no, we've lost. We need this, we need that. And we're going to get to one of the guys they've been linked with. But, man, just chill. Let Spalletti do his thing. Like I said, I am not a Spalletti guy. But just let him work. The only living Sorlot in captivity gives Atletico Madrid a 1-0 win over Alaves.

45:40Jules, once again, it's not straightforward for El Cholo. It never is.

45:44Julien Laurens:It never is. It's not pretty either. But it's a huge win. It's a big, big win because Betis had beaten Villarreal than I had before. so Atletico come back level on points with Villarreal in third place, just behind on, I mean, I think they have the same goal difference, plus 18-2. So just there with them, they had to win. It was not convincing, but they get the win. It's just, I don't think they will ever play well. I, there's that. Do you think, I mean. Alvarez is just a shadow of himself. Has been for weeks now. Yeah, he used to be, he just didn't score. He used to be, he just played badly away from home.

46:16Now he plays badly all the time. And also, Alex Bay, you know, Like, why isn't he starting? I know. Why isn't he giving a bigger role when he's, I think, clearly, maybe apart from Giuliano, you know, potentially one of the most important attacking players you have.

46:32Julien Laurens:Decisive. You're right. Niklas Fulcru comes off the bench to score the only goal as Milan be Lecce to stay three points back of Inter at the top of the table. Gab, is he the answer? What story? If he's the answer, then I'm not sure what the question is. Look, again, this is a pattern in Serie A. Lecce hyper defensive parking the bus Milan went with Rafael Lau and Pulisic up front created chances couldn't finish them so eventually Allegri and by the way especially in the second half but this is how Allegri should play the way they played in the second half there's no Luka Modric so oh look I'm going to play two playmakers Richie and Joshari because it takes two of them to make up one Luka Modric fine they took the game to them they created chances he should take that blueprint before the full crew goal Now, instead, all the focus is going to be on Fulkerug and Fulkerug this and that.

47:21Finally, send it forward when we need. Yeah, watch this guy play three times in a row, and you're going to want to put him in the dust. Sure. I'm happy for him. He scored. I feel bad for him, though, because he's staying in a hotel in Milan. Yeah. Tell me if this seems a little suspicious. So his hotel room, somebody was burgled. And according to the reports, they took 500 ,000 euros, which is close to$600 ,000 worth of items. Now, I genuinely wonder, Nicholas Fulcru does not strike me as a bling kind of guy. Maybe he has a few watches, a few bags, a few... Which he keeps in his hotel room? I know.

47:58Those are some really nice watches. A bit of a cash. I hope. I wonder. I wonder how much of that was in cash. Aston Villa lose at home to Everton 1-0, which means they don't get to be second in the table. And by the way, what a story it would be if they actually had been second on the table. Jules Unai Emery was grumpy, and you can see why. McGinn injured now as well.

48:22Julien Laurens:Yeah, knee injury. They've lost Kamara, I think, for a bit of time. Unana wasn't there too. The McGinn injury, I think, is bad, obviously. And he was very grumpy after the game. It was a very awkward post-match interview on UK television. Never. But more than usually, even, there's long silences. he said that they're not even top five contenders let alone title contenders but top five contenders they're basically not ready compared to other teams and I know they are under financial that's why Marlon has gone that's why they might get Tammy Abraham but obviously not the same value so I know it's difficult but you're still only third level with City in second only seven points behind Arsenal or which you've played twice already, so you won't have to face them again.

49:12Julien Laurens:It's not that bad, would I? No, and I've said they should find a way to double down. But the problem is, and I think people need to understand, because I think this is an underreported story. If Villa, Villa had to reach a settlement agreement because they breached UEFA's financial firm play, and the same applies to Chelsea, by the way, which is why these Jacquet stories create a million. If you shift somebody else and bring some money in, maybe we can talk. Otherwise, if they breach the goals that UEFA set for them, and these aren't necessarily break-even goals, these are goals where you're going to have to come back in from your breach before, they automatically get suspended from Europe for a year.

49:51That is what they agreed to in their settlement agreement. So you can see why they're being so cautious and so conservative. But yeah, it just sucks for the fans, frankly.

50:02Julien Laurens:And speaking of Villa, as we said, Daniel Mahlen moved to Roma, and he's called Stray Away as they beat Torino Tuning on the roads. This is the same Torino. They played them in the Coppa Italia and lost, but they played almost like an entirely different lineup in this game. And they looked really good. Paolo Dybala. We had a Dybala sighting. He looked really good. Dybala and Pellegrini setting up Mahlin. That was all good. Again, on Thursday when you weren't here, we had Salmon, big Villa fan, and he's like, all right so we really need to move malin out to get in for money right but it's gotta be it has to be you get his wages off you think the fee package is like 25 million or something um it's a lot of wheeling and dealing to balance the books it's not a good situation to be in i wish clubs were more transparent about this both to the coaches and maybe to the fans um and just say look, this is the reality.

51:03We are hamstrung. I think fans would understand. Fans care about the clubs. Now you have a situation where I think, you know, some fans, not the hardcore who know this stuff, but some fans are like, oh, why are you giving up? Why are you giving in? You know, and we're going to come back to this theme later as well. Get in the game with the college branded Venmo debit card. Wreck your team with every tap and earn up to 5 % cash back with Venmo Stash, a new rewards program from Venmo. No monthly fee, no minimum balance. Just school pride and spending power. Get in the game and sign up for the Venmo debit card at Venmo.com slash college card.

51:38The Venmo MasterCard is issued by the Bancorp Bank N.A. Select schools available. Venmo stash terms and exclusions apply at Venmo.me slash stash terms. Max$100 cash back per month. My day kicks off with a refreshing Celsius energy drink. Then straight to the gym. Pre-K pickup, back home to meal prep. Time for my fire station shift. One more Celsius, gotta keep the lights on. When the three alarm hits, I'm ready. celsius live fit go grab a cold refreshing celsius at your local retailer or locate now at celsius.com let's talk about the league on leaders yeah it's not paris center man no wesley saeed strike gives longs a one nil win over auxerre 10 wins in a row in all competitions eight on the split in the league

52:23Julien Laurens:we're living in a stone wise world we are gabby and this is a club record that never done eight in a row in the league ever in the history even when they won the title. Well done to them. Incredible. In a game that was made difficult, Oxeo played well, I thought, in this game. But Lars found an answer. It took a bit of time to break them down and then they got it with Westerstein who was about to be substituted because it worked so hard before that and then he scored. Wonderful. They have new signings from January 2. They have young players who are coming through who are really good, who are making a name for themselves in Ligue 1.

53:03Julien Laurens:It's just looking great. And there's the pressure from PSG and Marseille who are not fine. By the way, next Sunday or this Sunday. They play Marseille, yeah. It's Marseille. It's a way of Marseille they're playing. So it's a huge test for them. But for now, it's been wonderful. They have been the best team in the league. I'm going to put you on the spot. Percentage chance that we're going to be celebrating with our buddy Joseph and uncorking the champagne. Well, you won't. Yeah. I would be happy for Joseph. for sure, I would say right now, I still have PSG, even if they're behind, slightly, have to be favorite.

53:37Julien Laurens:Yeah, one point behind. They have to be slightly favorite. So, I'll probably go for 60 PSG, 30 Lens, 10 Marseille. All right. Did Zadby, thanks you for remembering him. Stanislav Lovodka, scores early for Napoli, who beat Sassuolo, 1-0, got three points, but now, Hackmani and Politano are injured as well. Yeah, he can't catch a break with the injuries. He gets angrier and angrier. I think at some point, since we're talking muscular injuries, and I hate doing this. Look, you're medically adjacent. You would know about that. We don't know from the outside, right? Is there a randomness of the medical things?

54:16People attack medical departments. They question blah, blah, blah. It's certainly not normal to have this many injuries like they've had. Obviously, I haven't all been soft tissue injuries, but this is a massive blow. they had a Champions League coming up. Conte can't be happy. No. It's always feast or famine for Marseille, isn't it, Jules? Yeah. They feasted on Angers 5-2. So I guess our boy Roberto de Zerbi is happy.

54:43Julien Laurens:Yeah, very happy. He said one of the best first halves he's ever seen, not just at Marseille, but even from previous clubs. Counting his time, it's a swallow. Probably. They were outstanding to be found at first half. And Angers are a good team, but they're also a playing team, and there were some key players missing. Actually, Marseille are about to sign Angers' best players who didn't play at this game on Sunday. But incredible for Marseille. Greenwood, Guiri, Traore, all of them really, really good. Perfect, too, before they host Liverpool on Wednesday at the Velodrome, where I will be. And the atmosphere is going to just be incredible.

55:18So, can't wait for that.

55:21Julien Laurens:Crystal Palace lose 2-1 at Sunderland. and Oliver Glasner goes on a rant saying that he feels abandoned by the owners of the club. Gab, who's right? So on an emotional level, I think actually they're both right because Glasner can say, wait a minute, we have the greatest season in the club's history. We win the FA Cup. We get into Europe for the first time. We should have been in the Europa League, but then because of this, because of who? Because of John Texter. We're not there. Of course. Not my fault. And we know we're going to have more income coming in from Europe. What do you do? You sell Le Borechese.

55:57You nearly sold, you nearly let Marque go. Now you're letting him go in January. Mateta could go to us. We'll see in the next question. What gives? I feel abandoned. I'm left here on my own. He's touched upon it before, but never to the same degree. The owners can come back and say, well, Liba Oliver, if you were so committed to this club, maybe you would have signed a new contract and you wouldn't just let your deal run down. Why should we, who we are a smallish club historically, we don't have an enormous fan base. We're not Manchester United. Yeah, we had this run. We spent money. We got you players for the run.

56:38We did very, very well. We might be willing to continue if we would commit, but if you're not going to commit to us, why should we commit funds that are scarce for us now when we're going to need a new manager in June. And he might like a different kind of players. He might want to. So I get both sides. Both sides emotionally are right. Intellectually, both sides are wrong. Viewed from the outside. Because clearly promises were made and weren't kept. Or the ownership misread Glasner. Yeah, maybe. You can't have a guy talking like this. The Times, who are close to Steve Parrish, the Palace chairman, reporting that he's going to stick around until the end of the season.

57:18Maybe so. I feel first and foremost for Palace fans because this is not what this season was supposed to look like. Now, sticking with Palace, Jean-Philippe Mateta could be the next start to exit, which would obviously fuel further frustration from Glasner. He's linked to Juve. Does it make sense for Juve, Jules?

57:37Julien Laurens:I mean, yes, because they obviously don't have a number now. Vlaovic, Openda, David, they play one up front. Yeah, it makes a lot of sense. I know it's a profile that they don't have, I guess. You could say. Unless Vlaovic is fit. Yeah, but even that, Vlaovic may be probably a bit more still dynamic than Mateta, old school kind of number. I don't know. 25 million, really? So it would be a loan with a fee, with an obligation to buy in the summer. I can see from him why he would want to be to a club like Juve. Amazing, dream come true. he's had a career where he struggled to make a name for himself.

58:16Julien Laurens:Now finally he's there. He can maybe go to the World Cup. Okay, all that. Make the most of it now, no problem. But from a Juve point of view, I'm not too sure. Also from Juve's perspective, you do not have a lot of resources. Yeah, a lot of money, right? He's going to be 29 years old in June. It doesn't mean he's finished, but you won't have any resale. Why do this? And I know Vlaovic is leaving, but Vlaovic is coming back in March. If you do need, if you can't win without that kind of figure between now and the end of the season, you'll have Vlaovic, and then, you know, maybe he'll stick around.

58:47Vlaovic will be very motivated when he comes back, obviously, right? Because he's facing free agency. And then cross that bridge later. To me, this doesn't make sense at all. I know.

58:56Julien Laurens:And Jaknoff scores deep in injury time to risk you a 3-3 draw for Eintracht Frankfurt away at Bremen. But, Gav, it's not enough to save Dino Topmuller's job. Yeah, I feel for Dino Topmuller solely because he was apparently named for Dino Zoff. Yeah. What a weird German thing to do. Absolutely. Like the guy who beats you in the World Cup final, the goal, the captain, like, yeah, I will name my son after him. I don't know. It's what Luis Van Haan might have called masochismus. Yes. But anyway, they're seventh. They have 27 points. They didn't expect to be there. One in nine or something like that.

59:30Julien Laurens:They've conceded a bazillion goals. Yeah, defensively, they're an absolute mess. It was fun while it lasted time to move on. Antofati scores. There's a blast on the pass. But Monaco fall at home to Lorient 3-1. Jules, seven defeats in their last eight in Ligue 1. For those watching, Jules is wearing a Monaco jersey in their honor. Of course, Aclayouche. Weirdly, the only team that they've beaten in Ligue 1 since Halloween. Do you know what that is? Yes. Party size, your man. That's right. They also did better in the Champions League than in the league in that period of time. I don't know. They can't get that consistency.

1:00:08Julien Laurens:I don't know what's going on when they play teams like Lorient, like they did at the weekend, because they were not very good, and Lorient hit them on the counter. Mistakes by Eric Dier. Vout Fass and Eric Dier as you two center-backs for a game like this. Incredible, really. I don't know where that is. Are you not a Vout Fass? He's not the Belgian David Luiz? Well, it might be. Well, they got him on loan from Leicester. But for Pocognoli, it's hard. And now they go to Real Madrid on Tuesday in the Champions League. Again, they have to. Well, they need to get a point. They play Real Madrid and Juventus back-to-back in midweek in the Champions League.

1:00:44Julien Laurens:So they need something a bit special in those games. Can you imagine if they screw the pooch against Real Madrid? I mean, it's a good time to play Real Madrid. Yeah, yeah. I guess it's a good time, yeah. Marc-Andre Testegen could soon have a new home gap. Actually, I'm not sure he's going to move house because he's close to joining Girona at home. So he doesn't even, it's just a slightly longer commute. I'm happy for him. I really like him as a player. I really like him, I think as a person, I think he's always been really forthright with the club. I like the way he stood up to him, didn't allow himself to get bullied out when it looked like it was going to happen.

1:01:22He's a good goalkeeper if he's fit. And he deserves to play regularly. and not a Girona.

1:01:28Julien Laurens:It's going to be too good for Girona, right? I'm not a Girona fan, but he obviously wants to take this time. Maybe I can get some games in. Maybe internationally something can happen. And then I'll see where I am in the summer. I think from his perspective, it makes sense. From Barcelona's perspective, obviously getting his wages. For Germany as well. A portion of his wages. And for Germany especially, it makes sense because we've seen what the goalkeeping situation was like in the last couple of internationals. fifa say they've had half a billion ticket requests for the world cup jewels that's one for every 14 people on this planet including men women and children yeah i have no frame of reference what does it mean i mean if it's true because again i'm sure fifa would not fib obviously definitely not okay they're not they're not fibbing they probably did have half a billion applications, but it is probably the same people applying for more than one game.

1:02:29It doesn't mean half a billion people want to go to the World Cup. It is probably a lot of bots from ticket resellers.

1:02:35Julien Laurens:Yes, because in the US, you explained the other day that you can sell. It's entirely legal. And even where it's illegal, you can still create fake accounts. So, yeah, I think we need to. That's what it is. Let's take a little chill pill on this one. If it's true, then it's bigger than anything that we've ever seen in World Cup history. so let's see. And sadly, we finished with a sad note, Gabby. Fiorentina owner Rocco Comiso has passed away. Gab, you got to know him a little bit. I did, yeah. And he was an important figure, not just in Serie A, but also in the US. You'll remember his lawsuit against Major League Soccer where when he was the owner of New York Cosmos, he was determined to introduce promotion and relegation.

1:03:20Came to Italy, came to Fiorentina, spent a lot of money, left some great legacies behind, like the Viola Park, which is sort of this tremendous training complex that they have, really state-of-the-art park. Easily, I think, the best one in Italy.

1:03:33Julien Laurens:Yeah. At the same time, was known to be extremely, you know, and look, if I were an outspoken billionaire, I would take these liberties too, right? So, you know, he would take issue with stuff that's like written in little blogs in like the local press in Florence and stuff. Very colorful figure. Self-made billionaire. I went to Columbia University, incidentally, on a scholarship. Larger than life. And he's passed on. And, yeah, our thoughts go out to him and his loved ones. Jules, this brings us to an end on a sad note. We have Champions League football. We have in midweek. We kind of miss the Champions League.

1:04:16Yeah, he's back.

1:04:17Julien Laurens:And back-to-back, by the way. Buck to Buck week as well. We're at the business end here. So we're going to be back on Thursday to tell you all about it. Until then, love the game. Love your neighbor. Love yourself.

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