Gab & Juls Show: Will Chelsea regret Maresca exit?

23:25Maybe that was the idea with Jarrell.

23:31So you always had that out, right? You always had the out, well, we can bring in Sar. I mean, think of what you want. SAR is another body. If you think Tosin's not good enough, Fufan is injured again and generally not good enough, nobody seems to like Badr-Shield, whatever, right? Yeah, yeah. So that could have been a point of tension. Center forward, same thing with Emiga or somebody else, but clearly it's turned out that all the nerds who said, oh, yeah, the lapse, metrics, okay, fine. That obviously hasn't worked out. Doesn't mean it won't work out. I mean, you want to blame Maresca for the fact that the lapse has not been good?

24:03Go ahead and do it. But it seems to me like you could go beyond all these things. This is the part that doesn't quite add up to me. I think there must have been a personal breakdown. Even this business with Manchester City. Now, he was with a different agency. He joined up with George Mendes. George Mendes had conversations with Manchester City. He says, like, hey, Pep Guardiola's pretty good, but at some point Pep Guardiola's going to move on. Ainsl would love to come back to Man City.

24:37Julien Laurens:Yeah. Which, by the way, I think is common sense, right? Any agent should do that if they have a top manager on their books. He, my understanding is Ainsl told City because he thought it was the right thing to do. Told Chelsea. That's right, told Chelsea. He's like, hey, if one day Pep leaves, my agent has had conversations about me going back there. This was reported in some newspapers. It's like, oh, look, he betrayed Chelsea's trust. I don't get this at all. No, I agree. If anything, he's being honest with them. I'm presuming he didn't go there and say, hey, one hypothetical day in the future.

25:12Because as far as we know, Pep Guardiola is going to coach another 50 years and become like Methuselam because, of course, 115 charges will never come to pass. If anything, he's being straight with them, right? Yeah, I agree. I mean, would you have preferred to find out that George had this conversation with City without hearing it from him?

25:31Julien Laurens:No, was the timing right? You've just changed agents. suddenly there's those stories out. There's the story of nobody supported us, you know, after the Atalanta defeat and the worst 48 hours of my life. And we slaughtered him for it because that was a stupid thing to say. It was a stupid thing. You don't make those accusations unless you're ready to say who you have a problem with. Completely. Because everybody's going to feel under attack. Yeah, so between his own communication that was bad at that time, plus those stories are everywhere and headlines, which is not a good look. And if you are the Chelsea ownership and you pay him and you see that and you're thinking, this is not good I don't like this and I wouldn't have liked this you wouldn't have liked this nobody would have liked this and I think again that's why we talked about poker game earlier it's all good a lot of managers and agents do those kind of things it happens all the time you have to be pretty strong when you're doing it and certainly doing it at the right time otherwise you could be in trouble so the next Chelsea manager will be the sixth Chelsea manager since these two took over

26:36I suppose we agree when you look at the profile of these coaches with the exception of Pochettino and obviously Tucho who they inherited nobody had a pedigree nope once they've moved to this model your coaches are going to be potters and lampards and people like that a top coach isn't going to come in because a top coach is going to say hey if I'm going to put my rep on the line I'm going to want certain guarantees, certain levels of control. I don't want to deal with five different sporting directors. Do you think if Rosinior comes in or Rosinior type and things go pear-shaped by the summer, do you think they abandon their model?

27:21It's a good question.

27:22Julien Laurens:It might be a little bit early in their process and I know it would have been a lot of managers, but you would think that they believe in what they're doing right now and you have to do that for a certain amount of years, not just, let's say, three-ish years for really it to work and see if it's working. So I don't think they would change anything. I think you're right. It narrows massively who can come. Would Xavi come in this situation? I don't think so. Would Oliver Glasner come in this situation? Definitely not. Definitely not, especially after what happened with him and Palace in kind of a similar-ish way.

27:58Julien Laurens:With Philippe Luiz, for example, who's, as we said, highly rated, very talented, would he come to Chelsea, one of his former clubs, in this kind of environment and structure? I'm not sure either. Also, I think he's a Mendes guy. Yes, too. Which might not be optimal. Yeah, right now is maybe not too positive. So, yeah, it's a very good point, too. Final thought on this. The reason I brought this up about batting the system is there's going to be a school of thought that says, you know what? this has served us for a while, the young players, the assets, and so on, but the reality is every year, we've breached financial fair play.

28:39Chelsea won the Club World Cup while being under punishment from UEFA, and then won UEFA's Club of the Year in August while being under punishment for breaching financial fair play from UEFA. You could look at it and say, hey, maybe we have enough talent here, enough young players. Maybe we should ditch this project because we can go out, hoover up a bunch of free agents, like Magic Mike, like Upamecano or Konate, not both of them, just get one of them, spend some money in RealCenter Forward, raise a ton of money by dumping, you know, somebody will give you some money for getting, somebody will give you some money for this one, you can do that very quickly, you should be able to sell one.

29:27And we can compete straight away. Yeah. It does mean we abandon our model. Yeah. But we can do this.

29:33Julien Laurens:Yeah, I agree. That's going to be the temptation. Yeah, there could be a shift there. But again, I think this is a little bit too early for them to make that shift.

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31:40Jules, with City dropping points too, Michael Arteta couldn't have hoped for a much better holiday period.

31:45Julien Laurens:Yeah, that's very true, Gaby. if you look at the table, obviously, second place City drop points, third place Villa drop points because they lost this game. And behind that, Liverpool drop points, Chelsea drop points, United drop points, everybody drop points around Arsenal. They were the only one, really, two of those clubs to win. KG first half was certainly quite tight first half where Watkins probably has the best chance and really should have taken that chance and Villa should have opened the scoring. But the second half was just a masterclass from Arsenal helped by the fact that two goals in five minutes.

32:19Julien Laurens:Yeah, and Villa were already without Camara and Cash, but lost to Nana at halftime. And I think at the end, when Una Emery made the point to his board by throwing on two kids that nobody had ever heard of, he's like, look, this is the squad I have compared to the squad of the other team that has huge depth in the bench. I take your point. Villa ran out of gas, but equally could have been very easy for Arsenal to be like, okay, we don't need to pile it on. We don't. We can manage it at 2-0, which they didn't do. And also, Arsenal playing without Declan Reis. All these moments, oh, he's essential.

32:57He's blah, blah, blah.

32:58Julien Laurens:Yeah, he's exceptional, but the other guys can play a little too. And as we said, Gamma Staciti were held. Nil-nil away at Sunderland, which means they're four points back now. Yeah, I don't even know if we should say it was Sunderland because it was Sunderland without five players at the Africa Cup of Nations. It was Sunderland without Ballard. And just to put this in context, and I say this with the greatest of respect, again, except for maybe the last 20, 25 minutes where City really... Sunderland, again, they ran out of gas. You can't play with that intensity. It's a huge ask. City had the chances.

33:33Maybe you could say they deserved a score. I don't know what the XG were, but it certainly felt as if, right? And then you're playing Josko Gvardiola at center forward. Yeah. But I want to wind it back to the previous 60 minutes. I'm sorry, you're Manchester City, right? You have pretty much all your starters, except for Roger, who comes on at halftime after a long stop. By the way, nice to see him play 45 minutes. I expect you to have your greater quality go and have an impact against a Sunderland side that are so tired and so exhausted. And I don't think we saw that from City. No, I agree. It was a case of outlasting them.

34:12The first half was really poor. One of the poorest first halves they've had this season. These are alarm bells. And maybe Rodri will fix everything. But I think there's more. And you can look at it on the flip side and say, hey, if they're still second in the table while playing like this, imagine when Holland starts scoring. Imagine when he figures everything out. Yohan Wiesa makes his first start of the season and gets on the score sheet as Newcastle win 3-1 away to Burnley. Juuls, if you want to go glass half full, sorry, half empty, they're 13th in the table. If you want to go glass half full, they're four points away from the Champions League.

34:49Julien Laurens:Yeah, which I think sums up well their season. I mean, you could have added home and away form, which is obviously so extreme and contrasted. The problem is not so much the four points out of the Champions League, there's so many teams ahead of them. So to overtake all of them and jumped over all of them, you need a lot going your way, which right now I'm not sure they can do. So let's see. They need momentum and they need a good run of results, which they can't get. They get one win and then they don't win for two. They get one win and then again. So unless they've got a consistency at some point, they won't get there.

35:22Julien Laurens:Crystal Palace, 1-1 with Fulham, for whom my holiday friend, Tom Kenny, of course, Tom, scores. Really nice goal, by the way. Gab, we expect them to announce Bernard Johnson to be their player very soon. Is that enough for Oliver Glasner? No, I don't think it is. I mean,$35 million is a significant amount of money to spend on a guy who's a gifted player. He's not too old, but he's also not really playing regularly. That's true. But I still think you're going to want more because you look at where you are on the table, you look at what you've achieved so far, and you say, you know what? We can get back into the Europa League next season.

35:56Liverpool are held at home by Leeds United. Nail, nail, jewels. The unbeaten run continues. But I wasn't impressed.

36:02Julien Laurens:Were you? No, no, at all. I thought it was a really poor performance from Liverpool. Very comfortable. for Leeds to get not just the draw, the clean sheet as well. I mean, Kavaluin almost even stole it right at the end with a goal that was offside in Raleigh Sob, but not by much. I don't know, for all the progress that we thought we saw, I guess we saw recently from Verde individually and the team collectively, this was back to what we saw before, which was not much really, all relying on a KTK who can't do it all on his own. Gagpo coming back from injury, I guess is maybe the little thing that you think, okay.

36:37Julien Laurens:He's not ready to start. He hasn't been ready to start. At least you have that option now that you didn't have probably before. But this is it. It was really cool. But you're back to the same problem. Then you play Gakpo on the left and then you may Virts over to the right because he's not going to ditch the diamond for a while. I don't think. I think that ship has sailed. I don't know. He's got work to do. Sticking with Liverpool Gaps headpiece coach Aaron Briggs has been let go. Are you surprised? So I'm not surprised. I have to confess I didn't know who this guy was until he was sacked. But you see the stat statistic that nobody's conceded more goals in Europe's top five leagues off of set pieces.

37:16And bear in mind, most of the teams that concede goals on defensive set pieces are teams that are not good conceded a lot of goals in general because they're not good and they're under pressure a lot. I'm not saying it's his fault, but it's clearly the set piece defending hasn't been good. Arnest Lott referenced it. And so it's easier to sack Aaron Briggs than to sack Kanate or Arnest Law. I mean, if you want to be really cynical about it, only they know what happened if they're not executing or if it's him or whatever. Bad news for Real Madrid, Jules. Kylian Mbappe has a knee injury. He'll be out for up to three weeks and could miss five games, including the Super Cup.

37:55That's right, Gabby.

37:56Julien Laurens:He had that pain in his knee since the whole of December. Played through. I think he thought that he would pass. Went on holidays. a lot of it to Morocco then came back to training started training and then the pain was very much still there so they had to do a scan the ligaments are damaged a little bit so you'll have to miss at least three weeks it could be a little bit more maybe but they're really hoping that three weeks should be enough five games at least it's not all league games there's a bit of Super Cup which I'm not saying that doesn't matter to Real Madrid but right now the focus is on the league and them trying to catch up Barcelona so it's bad news because, as you said, Garcia is coming in.

38:34Julien Laurens:There's no Hendrick anymore. I guess you could play Rodrigo as a nine. Rodrigo as a nine, I think. Or you go back to Jude Bellingham as a nine. How about that? Go back to the old Ancelotti scheme of Rodrigo, Bellingham, Vini. Yeah. And I guess the thing is that Kylian was so important for them that I don't know how they cope without him. I think this is where you step up. If you're one of these other highly paid players, you can say, hey, look, he's not here cock blocking anymore. Let me step up. Let me take over this team. that's the message that's Vinny especially right you mentioned that I don't just want to pick on Vinny but it applies to him to Bellingham to all these other superstars who are there yeah he finished 1-1 Old Trafford between Manchester United and Wolves got a great start of 2026 for Ruben Amorim no it's the fourth time in the last five games at Old Trafford that they draw points you're literally playing against a team that has lost what like 19 of the previous 22 and and Wolves have looked better of late let's admit that true but come on bro you're at home i don't care who's missing hey look at who's missing for wolves look at the difference in who was actually out there yeah there's no runa fernandez and there's no brian and bumo all of a sudden brian and bumo it's like oh my goodness there's no ryan gigs yeah come on now um it was not great it was not good at all and the fact that he's so honest about it afterwards it's refreshing it's refreshing to me because I like it when people are honest and accountable.

39:59Yeah, yeah. But it's got to drive the fans mad.

40:02Julien Laurens:Yeah, but it's on him too. So you can be honest. You have to take responsibility because you're not good enough. Do you know what the scariest sound to hear on the factory floor is? Silence. That means something somewhere broke. Production has stopped and now you're paying workers to wait while the team troubleshoots and fixes the problem. Finally, there's a proactive way to reduce equipment downtime thanks to MaintainX. MaintainX is the AI-powered maintenance and asset management system that brings your unplanned maintenance downtime to zero. MaintainX lets you build preventative maintenance schedules, manage work orders in real time, and access the data you need to make better decisions.

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41:52That's ethos.com slash sports. Application times and rates may vary. The man with two first names returns to Brentford and Tottenham get a point in a nil-nil draw. Jules, I know you love exciting football. I'm going to guess that watching this hurt your eyes.

42:09Julien Laurens:It was painful to get. Not just my eyes, it hurt my heart. It hurt every part of my body. This was so bad. From a Brentford point of view, I guess even at home, you're probably the underdogs against a team like Spurs and you take that draw if you're Spurs, though. I mean, this is what your team is about now. It's just there's nothing with the ball. They don't create anything. They don't do anything. There's just nothing when you are in possession. And as a Spurs fan, it must be so difficult to watch. And I'm just not sure. Again, we keep repeating ourselves a bit, but I don't know what Thomas Frank is doing every day of the week.

42:46Julien Laurens:He's been here since July the 1st, and this is what we have on January the 1st. Really? And even basic things. At one point, Kudus seems to shoot from inside his own half for no reason whatsoever. Again, you're not even talking about individual player development either. Sticking with Spurs, Gabi, Manuel Salomon is reportedly about to join Fiorentina on loan. Fabio Paratici, the Spurs sporting director, loves bringing his old players with him wherever he goes. Yeah, now, Paratici, not official yet, but they gave a whole... It's really funny, the Fiorentina's chief executive gave a whole press conference where he says, like, well, now that we're getting a man who's got extensive international experience and he signed a long-term contract, blah, blah, blah, he never wants to mention his name.

43:29So maybe it's not Paratici, maybe it's somebody else. Maybe it's one of Chelsea's five sporting directors in a shock move. but no this Manu Solomon stuff looks like it's pretty much nailed down he's been a Villarreal he's had a nightmare as good as Villarreal have been in the league he's just not getting on the pitch he's only started one game in La Liga and I think he's only made a couple appearances off the bench in the Champions League Fiorentina is a too good a side to be where they are in the table I expect Paratici to wheel and deal like there's no tomorrow this January and they're going to go back up what it means to him and from Spurs I don't know.

44:05I would have thought Solomon would have been a player Thomas Frank likes. There's a guy in there. We remember him being good. So let's see how that goes. It's knockout time in the Africa Cup of Nations, Jules. The round of 16 kicks off this weekend. I'll give you two Saturday games. Mali against Tunisia and Senegal against Sudan.

44:25Julien Laurens:Yes, Sudan who qualified without scoring a goal because they won one game on an own goal, so not technically there. Minimalist is the term. Yeah, minimalist. But because of the third-base team going through, you can go through in that way. For the first time ever that a team goes through to a knockout round without scoring a goal. This is going to be, I think, too hard for them against Senegal, even if they defend for their life. Mali Tunisia should be a bit more balanced and even, which I think could be great. But yeah, I'm very excited because all the big boys are there. We've seen some really good football so far.

44:58Julien Laurens:And I expect some really, really good knockout ties. Some predictions, I'm assuming you're predicting Senegal. Yeah, Senegal and Mali to go through for me. Yeah, I'm with you on that. Although, again, Tunisia could be tight. Meanwhile, Gab, host Morocco, face Tanzania on Sunday while the Bafanas, South Africa, take on the indomitable Lions of Cameroon on Sunday too. Yeah, I had to go with the nicknames for that one. Yeah, I love them. There's awesome nicknames in Africa. Tanzania, people say, oh, look, the surprise package. Yeah, surprise package, they've not really been good. No. at all, and I expect Morocco to absolutely wipe the floor with them.

45:37I think Morocco can beat themselves, but I don't think Tanzania can beat Morocco. Put it that way. Morocco going through for me. South Africa against Cameroon. South Africa have been bad, just like they were not so good in qualifying. They had that late penalty against Zimbabwe in the last game. They ended up winning 3-2. They were poor against Egypt, despite playing the entire second half with an extra man. They were not good against Angola in the opener either. So for me, Jules, I've got to be honest with you, this is all Cameroon. I got Cameroon and Morocco going through. Who you got? Yeah, same.

46:10Same, I think, Morocco and Cameroon. Gabon were hugely disappointing in this Cup of Nations. Perhaps the only kind of favorite country to go out. Yeah. Well, not that they were big favorites, but... No, you're right. Jules, the government felt the same way, and they're taking direct action.

46:25Julien Laurens:Yeah, which is something that we've seen before. In Africa, reactions like that from a sports minister or government or president, things like that. They're so passionate about the football. So they basically banned the whole team. They sacked Aubameyang and École Manga from the national team. Isn't École Manga like 40 years old? 37 or 20 years older than Aubameyang. Plays in the third division in France for a Paris team. But yeah, not happy at all. I mean, we've seen more extreme even in previous half-cons, remember? After World Cup, some teams had to stay in a government building or something like that.

47:10Julien Laurens:We're not allowed to leave or not allowed to leave the training ground. That's a good way to travel back in time and give you another chance to play better, right? Yeah, exactly. With Dan D 'Amfri's injured, Inter could be getting some help down the right-hand side, Gab. Yeah, one of my all-time favorite players who I think has gotten a really rough ride over time, and that is Jean Cancelo. He's at Al-Hilal, where he's coached by former Inter legend Simone Inzaghi, as a coach, obviously, not as a player. He fell out badly with Inzaghi at Al-Hilal, which seems weird. I would have thought Inzaghi would have liked his wingbacks, his attacking wingbacks.

47:55he supposedly is all about money but Inter are hoping that they can get him by he's scheduled to earn 7.5 million euros between now and the end of the season. Inter is saying hey look El Hilal we'll pay 3 million of that and you guys pay the other 4.5 million but we'll take him off your hand so you don't have to see him every day I like the guy I have no idea if he's good enough still I assume he hasn't lost his technical ability against many teams. He's not going to need to defend, and certainly when you play a back three. His defensive issues have long been the same that prompted people like Augie to absolutely hate him as a player.

48:35It's less of an issue at a club like Inter. So I think it would make a lot of sense and be good for him, too, with a view towards Portugal in the World Cup. After helping Santos avoid relegation, Neymar has put pen to paper and a one-year extension through the end of 2026. Jules, if he stays fit, maybe just maybe should Cardinalis not consider him?

48:56Julien Laurens:I think that's the plan, even from Ancelotti's point of view, to see where Neymar is at come April, let's say. I think, though, a lot of people think he's very unlikely that he will be back to a level of fitness. Just in terms of injury-free, to be able to bring him to the World Cup, there's also so many other players that you can consider. And I think Ancelotti now has been in the job for a few months and has not played him really, it would feel really late to bring in Neymar, even for the March games, in the view of the World Cup, I think. I'm not a huge Neymar guy, as you know. But if he's even moderately fit, even like 15, 20 minutes off the bench at Brazil level, I ask myself, you're going to take 26 players of the World Cup?

49:48are there four Brazil wingers who are clearly definite? Help me come up with the names of four Brazil wingers who are clearly definitely 100 % ahead of him. Because I'll take Vini, I'll take Esteval, Rodrigo. And Rafinha ahead of Neymar, definitely. If Rafinha doesn't play at 10, okay, sure. Yeah, I think. So there's room for a fifth winger, maybe even a sixth winger.

50:14Julien Laurens:And it's not just that. I think it's also everything else that comes with Neymar, the superstar in it, including, I think, extra pressure in a way on Arcelotti to play him and how much and when do you play him and would you start him? And if he only plays 15 minutes, but he's good, do you start him the next game? All of that I think that you could probably do without. I don't know. Yeah, most coaches. And Celotti seems to embrace that. He seems to be so good with the players and the media. But yeah, you're right. You're right. Yeah. He'd need to be very fit and very productive. Roma are close to finalizing a deal to bring Jack Raspadori back to Serie A from Atletico Madrid.

50:50Julien Laurens:Gab, does this make sense for either club? Jack the Rasp coming back. I know, that was a weird move. We said that in the summer, to go to Spain like that. I think the reason Atleti took him was that he said, all right, we have the spider, Julian Alvarez. We have the only living sore loss in captivity. We have magical Griezmann. and we need another sort of cartoon character. Let me go with Jack the Red. No, I think their thinking was, like some people, Griezmann's father time is going to catch up with Griezmann. I like the idea of another little guy. I play two up most of the time, so I want four forwards.

51:29We might see them actually playing one plus one more, I think, as season goes on. Griezmann, I think, has given you more than maybe some people hoped he would. so Jack's kind of surplus to requirements. I don't think he hasn't played much. He hasn't been great when he's played although he scored a couple big goals from it's rumored it's a 2 million euro loan deal and then 19 million to make the deal permanent and there's an obligation to make it permanent if certain targets are met. For me, the broader issue is Varouma, you already have Dolph Bick and Ferguson as your main center forwards. Is he going to be your main center forward, or is he going to be the other guy in your 3-4-2-1?

52:15And then bearing in mind you have Matias Suhr, and you have Dybala, and you have Pellegrini, and you have Baldanzi. So do they have to shift? And we know he doesn't really like Dolph Bick. We know Ferguson has been very much top start with him, although he has his moments. I don't know. It seems kind of like a hard handbrake turn. maybe they just said, all right, he's better than what we have, so let's chuck him in and we'll figure it out later. But it doesn't really seem to be part of the plan here. I agree. Anyway, he was hugely hyped as a teenager, Jules. Primarily because he was Paris born and bred, but not just, also because he was extremely talented.

52:52I saw it on Wikipedia, so it must be true, that he scored 89 goals as a season as a U14 or U15 player.

52:59Julien Laurens:Yes, I thought he was incredible. However, he had a big money move from Lange to Marseille. Then he had a big money move from Marseille to Eintracht. After not doing great in Marseille, but hey, it's Eli Wahi. We can see his physical tools. He's been bad at Eintracht. Really bad. And he's coming back on loan to Ligue 1. He's going to join Jim Ratcliffe's other club. Yeah, and he needed a move from Frankfurt where he hardly played and there was just clearly not counting on him. It's a big move because this time he needs to get it right. Nice needed number nine badly. I think he could actually do well.

53:35Julien Laurens:They've changed managers. Claude Puel has come on for Frank Aiz. So let's see. I think he's a good signing. I think Richardson is also coming from Fiorentina. Let's talk about Ben Davis, our friend, to come from Spurs too, to bring some experience defensively, which they also badly and badly need. So let's see. But I think I like this Wahey signing. If you can get the Wahey from Montpellier, that was only a few years ago. You know, I'm not going to let you mention Richardson coming from Fiorentina without telling our audience who might be NBA fans who his dad is. Of course, because his dad was the great Michael Richardson.

54:16Julien Laurens:Michael Ray Richardson, a.k.a. Sugar. Yes. Legendary NBA player. Sadly passed away not long ago. But yeah, his son, who is very tall as well, but chose football ahead of basketball, is also very good. And chose Morocco ahead of the U.S. Yes, as well. And France. back to the spanish super cup gab atletic bill bausi niaki williams didn't hold back when sharing his thought on it being held in saudi arabia again uh yeah talk about being our message he came out and he basically said the whole idea of having a spanish super cup in saudi arabia is a word that rhymes with spit um which i can't say i mean yeah yeah um and he gave his reasons afterwards and I think it's kind of hard to argue against it.

54:58He's like, we're at Le De Mobile. Our fans are here. We go there. We don't have any fans there for evident reasons. We're not going to gain any more fans in Saudi Arabia. Been there, done that. And so they're just like away games. He just seemed totally not psyched to play. Now I appreciate there's broadcasters who paid a lot of money to go to Super Cup, including this one, but I have a lot of sympathy for him. You know, Barcelona and Real Madrid do very well out of this. I don't know that the other teams who go get much out of this at all. I don't think it grows. I think it's... If you think about what winning a Super Cup might mean to a club like Atleti Bilbao, who, you know, haven't won very much in their history other than the recent Copa del Rey, compared to what does it mean for Real Madrid and Barcelona, who, oh, look, should we sock him?

55:55Oh, no, but we won the Super Cup. Oh, like, it's just like a number, right? Nobody actually particularly cares. I'll move the needle. You really wonder whether, does this make sense? I know, I agree. I like things my way, my coffee, my schedule, and my treatment. So I talked to my doctor about self-injecting with the Vivgard Hytrulo Pre-Filled Syringe, which contains F-Gartigamide Alpha and Hyaluronidase QVFC. It's injected under your skin subcutaneously. It means I can inject in my space on my time. It's my treatment, my way. Visit vivgartmyway.com. That's V-Y-V-G-A-R-T myway.com. And talk to your doctor about Vivgart Hattrulo.

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56:37Julien Laurens:When was the last time you felt in control of your business finances? Expenses tracked, invoices sent, taxes ready. That's where Found comes in. Found brings your banking, bookkeeping, invoicing, and taxes together in one simple app. Manage expenses, invoice clients, send payments, and prep for tax time right where you bank. Join the hundreds of thousands who have already streamlined their finances with Found. Open a Found account for free at found.com. That's F-O-U-N-D dot com. Found is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services provided by lead bank member FDIC. Let's talk about the big, tall Norwegian center forward who is not the only one of a species living in captivity and who does not celebrate goals by taking meditation poses.

57:17That's right. It's Jorgen Strond Larsson. He's being linked to a bunch of clubs at a£40 million price tag. Obviously, his team dead last on the table, three points off season. Did score 12 goals last season. It was good last season, yeah. Is this kind of like the generic price for a mid-career guy who scored double figures once?

57:37Julien Laurens:Yeah, no, I think so because I think he's talented. It's just not happening for him and for Wolf this season. and he wanted to leave in the summer. Really pushed for a move to Spurs. They didn't allow him to leave. They gave him a new improved contract, but they also knew that he would leave either in January or in the summer. So if it's not this month, it will be in June or July or August. There's no doubt. He did quite well at Celta Vigo. So I think there's clubs in Spain who are looking at him. There's clubs in England looking at him. I think he's got all the game to be very good in the Premier League too.

58:07Julien Laurens:for another club, whether he's your starter or your second-choice striker. So, yeah, that's inevitable. And also, I think Wolves are already preparing for next season where they can't keep a guy like him in the championship. It would make no sense financially. He would not want to be there. So they will sell their highest-valued players and he's probably the highest one of all of them. So why not selling him now? So he's good at... So the Spurs stuff, that was like a legitimate... Yeah, yeah. He agreed terms with Spurs. So, wait. So, you have Dominic Solanke, who you didn't know he was going to be injured at the time.

58:44Julien Laurens:I think he was injured already, but not for that long. We didn't know he was for that long. You have spent a ton of money on Matisse Tell. Yeah. And then you said, oh, let me... And you still have Richard Lisson, who might be one of your better players this year. And you say, oh, I need another 40 million to get this guy in. I mean, what... Yeah, because I think they... Seriously. potential in him. He's a very Thomas Frank kind of player though. Really, when you think about it. he's Scandinavian and he runs into people. Yeah, he's like an Ivan Toni type, really. So, I think, they really liked him more than Colomani who was there, who then arrived after the Stranlarsson deal didn't happen.

59:20Colomani to play centre-forward but then he doesn't play centre-forward because once he arrives he'll realise, hey look, maybe you're not really suited to this. Yeah, not here, not in the Premier League.

59:27Julien Laurens:Speaking with striker, Tati Castellano's deal to join West Ham from Lazio is about done, Gab and he's not the only one on his way to the Clarets. So if these prices are, if these numbers are right, I just don't understand this. The number quoted is 25 million. That's a lot. Fati Castellanos, you know how many goals he scored this season? I would say four. No, he has scored two goals more than you have. And you don't even play for Lazio. Not yet. And for what? He's going to be better than Callum Wilson? Supposedly they're also getting this other guy, Pablo, from Gil Vicente, who I have to say, I knew Gil Vicente were doing well.

1:00:02I do not have the bandwidth to watch Hid Vicente. They're actually fourth or fifth on the table. Yeah, fifth, yeah. Pablo's 22 years old. He scored 10 goals in 13 games this season. Do you want to be surprised to guess that maybe he might share a manager with, he might share an agent with the manager of West Ham, obviously. I don't get it. Now you just accumulate more and more center forwards?

1:00:28Julien Laurens:I don't know. I guess Fulcroo is on his way to Milan, as we know, on loan. So it's Callum Wilson or Javid Bowen that you play as a fourth number. You don't really want him there. So, yeah. But Tati Castellanos? They can play as a second striker. And don't forget, they're going to lose Paqueta at some point. So... Tati Castellanos is here. No, no, no. But you know what I mean? I think you also need body. Yeah, for me, Pablo makes a little bit more sense because he's young. It's a bit risky because he's untested outside of Portugal, obviously. And this could very be like a one-sided wonder. But at least there's room there for improvement, Castellanos.

1:01:05Julien Laurens:And it's not like if Castellanos had been playing for Lazio for 10 years and doing really well, apart from just this season. So let's see. It sounds very much like for Castellanos, like a very much of West Ham move that we've seen so many times in the past. Now, one of your boys, even though he's neither Paris-born nor Paris-bred, he's getting a shot at first-team management, Jules. We need to talk about Gael Clichy. He's had him on a Gabin Jules' meets. He is a friend of the show. Yes. And he finally has his own gig. Yes. And he's very excited. And he started on Monday. He took over Cannes in the third division, the club that is owned by the Mbappé family, who had gone down from Ligue 1 to Ligue 2 to then the third division, the National.

1:01:50By the way, for those who aren't familiar with French geography and don't get French accents, this is not the place where they have the film festival. No, that's not Cannes.

1:01:58Julien Laurens:Yeah, that's Cannes versus Cannes. Yeah, that's Cannes in Normandy. so like an hour and 20 minutes away from Paris. It's colder and windier there. Yeah, it's not sunny for sure. But it's a great club because they used to be in Ligue 1 or in top flight for a long time. They've got a great academy, a great stadium. He's very much excited by the challenge and the prospect, the project to bring them back, sunny to Ligue 2 at the end of the season. He can't wait to start next Friday. So Friday week time, as we record the show, he will have his first game against Concarnault away from home. and I think he, as you know, we are completely biased here, but I think he's going to be a great, great coach.

1:02:37Julien Laurens:So that's only one to watch if you're an Arsenal fan or a City fan or something like that. If you like good young coaches, he's one to watch for sure. By the way, it's Kwon, they have the rapper who had a go at Mbappé. Has he weighed in? Because I really need to know his opinion. No, you're right. I will check. I don't know yet And Gayle hasn't told me, but I will check and report back to you. Pascal Gross is reportedly about to return to Brighton. Gab, does that make sense to you? It totally makes sense. It makes sense because Brighton, for all their emphasis on youth and blah, blah, blah, they have a legacy of having old timers around.

1:03:18Whether it's Adam Lallana, James Milner. Danny Welbeck is also really, really old. I have a friend who doesn't really follow football who said, oh, I saw Welbeck score. Is he the son of the Welbeck who played for... No, no, no.

1:03:32Julien Laurens:It's still the same guy. It's still the same guy. And the great thing about Pascal Gross is that you don't lose your technique when you get older. Yes, he's slower even than before. Slower than before. Can't run around as much. But I think he strikes the ball almost as well as anybody. In a Premier League with a season where everybody's talking about so many set pieces, you need a guy who can deliver the set pieces. I don't think there's many players who do a better job than him. and he's one of the good guys. So yeah, I'm happy to have him back. It's time! It's time! It's texter time! Now we told you JT would get in trouble for basically acquiring players and then not paying for them.

1:04:11That's generally what happens if you go to a shop and you take something and you walk out without paying. You can get... That's your choice. Liberating, some might say. And now it is coming to pass. Thiago Amada's move from Atlanta to Botafogo, which I think was like, what, like three years ago? More than that. More than that. Basically, Atlanta United said, hey, you guys never paid us. They went through the whole thing. They had a ruling from FIFA, they had a ruling from CAS. And now FIFA has said, all right, we're going to enforce the rules here. Three window transfer ban.

1:04:45Julien Laurens:Yeah, it was always going to happen. I think if you're a Botafogo fan, you must be devastated because it was inevitable, really, for John Texter to not play by the rules, which are very simple. Like you said, you said it for any normal person going to the shop, you buy something, you pay for it straight away. In football, it's slightly different because you can obviously pay in different installments. We know that. You can do that in real world too. You can do it with Klarna and then Klarna come after you. Yes, very true. They send people to your house. Well, in this case, Atlanta United sent FIFA to Botafogo's house and said, this is not on.

1:05:21Julien Laurens:And really, it's so disappointing, again, not surprising, but disappointing from John Texter and the Eagle Group to be able to do something like that and not pay. Again, we haven't heard from him. JT, you have my number. Call me anytime. I'm sure there's a reason for it. I don't think there is, guys. That's the thing. Because he gives money a lot to Nottingham Forest and his friend Marinakis, but doesn't pay Atlanta when he signed their best player. So Atlanta United, by the way, they're now owed also an additional$9 million, they say, in performance-related bonuses. And also the selling cost, because Thiago Almada now, of course, is at Atletico Madrid.

1:06:02I don't know. I don't know what to say about this man anymore. Maybe he's right and everybody's out to get him.

1:06:12Julien Laurens:Yeah. Gab, who is Michel Kuka and Boladinga, and why are we talking about him today? So we're talking about him for a moment that went viral. Look, I don't like it when, oh, it's a Cup of Nations or the World Cup. You're like, oh, look at the passion of the fans, blah, blah, blah. And it's a bunch of people jumping around and singing and whatever, whether it's South American fans, Mexican fans, African fans, whatever. However, what this guy does needs to stand out. This guy is an absolute super fan. So you might see him. He's dressed in a jacket and tie. Super smart. He's super smart. He's got the glasses.

1:06:50Yeah. And what he's trying to do, and he stands still. He stands still for the entire game. Standing up. Plus injury time. Yeah, he builds a little podium for himself. Yeah. And he's emulating the statue of Patrice Lumumba, who was, I believe, was the first president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Yeah. Was assassinated in 1961. I guess this was after independence from Belgium. him um and this is his homage to because he looks like him a bit physically as well yeah but yeah a little bit uh but also he wears the same glasses i mean it's it's absolutely remarkable it's a way to stand out yes um people said mimes are dead and like you see those street performance

1:07:34Julien Laurens:who like you know they they strike a pose yeah i wonder at this moment's gone viral i wonder if is going to become a thing. Maybe we'll see it at the World Cup. Do you think? I challenge fans. Congo can still qualify, obviously. So if they qualify, we would expect he will be there. From him. But wouldn't it be cool if we saw this from other fans? Like, I'm sure there's some weirdo French, well, like a French fan who dresses up like Asterix, for example. Like Napoleon with his hand. Yes, exactly. In his suit like that and the hat. Except he was short. So then he'd be a really high podium. He's a big podium.

1:08:04Julien Laurens:But still, I'm just throwing it out there. I mean, good luck to Michel and Congo against Algeria in the last 16 rounds. That's right. As we told you, it doesn't look too good. But if they go through a grudge match against Nigeria and my Super Eagles, how cool would that be? All right, Jules, this brings us to an end, but don't worry. We got you in the new year. We got you in 2026. We're going to be back on Monday. Until then, love the game. Love your neighbor. Love yourself.

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