Pochettino Here to Stay for USA

25:00I mean, that's a difference. Seriously. You know, Rodgers is a very good player, but really, Elliot Anderson is a really good player but really, and now as Joseph mentioned the money that's been thrown about now, these transfers is not it's not really realistic in terms of balancing it with the talent of these players it's just became utterly stupid and it's no wonder some clubs that are obviously not as elite as Real Madrid and others at the top of the food chain, go out and source a lot of cheaper players and sell them on at vast amounts of money. That's where to make money these days. You go and harness...

25:40Morgan Rodgers was at 8 million. They signed him from Borough because Unai Emery saw him in some League Cup game or whatever it was and went, I like him, and they sell him for over 10 times. There's so many people out there just willing to pay this crazy money for players. It just almost puts a lot of other clubs out of reach of even bidding for some of these players. It's so expensive. One player that certainly won't be that expensive, Jules, but we'll talk about just as much, is Rodri. Where do we stand on the possibility of him playing for Real Madrid at the start of the season? I mean, like we just said with Jermaine, Real Madrid have other, I guess, priorities there because Rodri is injured right now.

26:22He had surgery on his back, which was expected and should not be out for too long. We're probably expecting back in two months, ready to play. So there's no urgency, really, from a Real Madrid point of view, because you know that he's not going to be able to play in the next few weeks anyway. So let's saw Jomande first, let's saw Avini first, which are the priorities right now. And then look for Rodri and look at a solution for Rodri, who wants to come to Madrid. I think Real Madrid, and there were conflicted reports with people within the club. Some wanted Rodri, others wanted a younger player.

26:57Rodri is about to turn 30, by the way. And you can understand why, if you're Real Madrid, Rodri looked great at the World Cup, but that was over eight games. His season with Man City had more ups and downs, really. And if you're Real Madrid and some people at the club really believe that maybe a younger defensive midfielder that might be just not at the level of Rodri just now, but will be for the next five to eight years, makes more sense than going for Rodri now with a kind of longish contract. at 30, with the uncertainty over the injuries, not just the big one that he had previously, but also the back one that he's at now for, makes more sense.

27:36But I still expect Rodri to probably make that move and then City to replace him with Ayubouadi, the wonder kid from Morocco and Lille. You just know Mourinho. Mourinho doesn't want that second option, does he? He wants the first option, which is the guy that can do it from now. The experienced guy, the player that they don't have. Can he do it from now if he's injured all the time? Well, the one thing I would say, You could look at a lot of players at Real Madrid and say, well, he could plug that hole, he could plug that hole, he could do that. Stevie mentioned the front boys. You could shuffle them all around.

28:04They haven't got that player, be it Rodri or anybody else. They haven't had it since Kroos and Modric. They've got too many. They've got Camavinga. Camavinga was terrible last year. Valverde's more of a runner. You know, they've got, like I say, Arda Gouler and Braham Diaz. They're not really natural midfielders. They don't have anybody with that nous and experience that can pass the ball and keep the ball like him. the big question is his fitness. And Gilles is right. What we saw from him in the summer is not what we saw generally from him at Manchester City. So why would it change? Well, he's still...

28:38He's only 30. He's not 35. He's only 30 years old. I mean, look at Modric. He left Real Madrid when he was, what, 38, 37? Can you imagine somebody when he was 30 saying, oh, if he's 30, we need to start looking to replace him. There is a big gamble there. There's a big element of doubt. Well, and here's the thing. If you want to look at what they're talking about, spending on Di Amande and maybe spending on Vinny, you're telling me that you're not going to take a little gamble on the money that Rodri's going to be. You wouldn't gamble that. Yes, he missed a whole load of the season when Man City, but it was coming back from that ACL.

29:22It takes time. but he did show you what he's capable of when he's in some sort of shape in the World Cup and you're not going to gamble on that it's against much inferior opposition though in a sense isn't it look you know if you get Rodri Frick you know what you're going to get you absolutely and you're telling me you're going to gamble all that money on those two up the front and you're not going to take a gamble on a position that since Tony Cruz left has absolutely destroyed the middle of your pack You've won nothing in the last two years. So you're telling me that's not worth a gamble on Rodri?

29:57100 % it's worth it. Let's move away from Real Madrid and talk about Bruno Gimeraes. It's off to Arsenal, Jules. You must be loving it. Well, I think it will end up there. But for now, they had first contact today. A first offer that was rejected, which I think was expected from both sides. And they will talk again. We're talking here between around, probably around£70 million pounds with some bonuses, probably 10 million to get up to 80 million pounds, which I think is the valuation for a player like him. Probably right at his age 28 with those kind of stats, with the leadership that he has, with what he can bring to Arsenal individually and then collectively as a team as well.

30:37So I expect this one to go through at some point. There will be a bit of a saga. I don't think it's something that can be done very quickly now. But he wants to go. They want him. Newcastle have to sell because that's the situation that they are financially. They had to let Gordon go, Anton Ali go and now Bruno probably will go as well but today was really the first step I was told in the direction of this transfer to happen. Seems like a no-brainer doesn't it? If you're Arsenal and Bruno Guimaraes. Yeah, not very, no-brainer if you're up in Newcastle. You had the Isaac saga last year and now they're just selling everything but you know a very good player.

31:12I don't know how the dynamic would work in terms of that midfield obviously maybe when he moves Zubimendi or maybe move one or two on. They've got a big squad. He was sort of out of favour big time at the end, wasn't he? That's the first time we've seen the odds. Look at him there. Guimaraes and Rice. I'm trying to think. How would that midfield work, Jules? How could you see that Arsenal midfield of Guimaraes? How are Liverpool third favourites? But anyway, that's for another show. You are not kidding, by the way. Wow. Sorry, Jules. I was going to say Bruno Isacastel. even that? Really? Go on.

31:52Who makes those odds? Yeah, exactly. The way Arteta sees it is Bruno as the sixth. He loves how press-resistant he is and when you try to play up from the back you need a player like him and I think on that he's really world-class. Then Rice higher up on the left-hand side and the running, the half-space, everything and then Odegaard or Eze in the third position in that midfield whether you want to call it another eight on the right-hand side or more of a 10, whether you play 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1, there will be tweaks and little things depending on the opposition and the forms, etc. And then you've got Dubimendi in the rotation.

32:29You've got Luis Kelly in the rotation as well. And that's what Arteta felt that he needed. We saw Dubimendi having a really good first half of the season and then running out of gas because he played so much because there was not really an alternative to him in that position in the squad. But now with Bruno, it's very expensive to sign both Zubi Mendy and Guimaraes within 12 months. Obviously, with the two summers, I get that. But at least you've got that depth in that very key position in the way Arsenal are playing. Anything you'd like to add? No. Extra time is available over on our YouTube channel, where we stay late, as always, to answer your questions.

33:06This was the last show before we went on holiday. There you are. Oh, the memories.

33:16During our time off, Mr. Infantino has made a lot of headlines, pretty much all for the wrong reasons. Of course, looking to sell part of FIFA to private investors. That caused an uproar. Then all the federations voted against him. And now it looks like he's a dead man walking. Jules. Yeah, I mean, I think his days are counted. I was going to say his days are counted. I don't think they just counted just yet, But there's more and more pressure from the FAs all around the world. You know, FIFA have 211 countries or FAs that are part of FIFA, really. And there are mechanisms now before the election, the next election, to vote for the FIFA president, which is in March 2027.

34:00Where right now Infantino was almost guaranteed to be re-elected again because he was the only candidate. Now the pressure is on because he thought he was untouchable. Can his friend Mr. Trump help him at all, Jules? Well, apparently Mr. Trump is not picking up his calls anymore. Which obviously now that he's had the World Cup, now that he's had everything he wanted, Infantino is a stranger to him. And the problem is I think Infantino spent probably too much time with people like Donald Trump. And I felt he was one of them being untouchable. And actually he's not. And that idea that he had pretty much on his own, because let's not forget here, or let's remind everybody that this decision of trying to sell 20 % of the World Cup was not shared with anybody either close to Infantino or within that kind of FIFA executive committee, if you want, executive committee, who take those big decisions or suddenly put them forward for the football federations around the world to vote for.

34:56He pretty much did that on his own, and a lot of people were very angry. Even his closest allies were quite angry with how this went about, basically, and now he's under huge pressure. I think he's probably just about political enough to hang on until the election in 2027. But there's a scenario where the pressure gets too big and too much on him that he has to go. It's been crystal clear for a long time that this is a man that cannot read the room, right? The word shame is not in his vocabulary. You cannot shame this man. He's brazen. long before the World Cup the Club World Cup was his idea as well it was a money spinner it should be shelved if you watched the World Cup draw that took cringe to different levels of cringe and that showed you that this man here was not aware or was ignorant to the rest laughing at him not laughing at him because he wasn't making people a lot of money because he was but they were laughing at his actions and his actions continued into the World Cup and I'm not going to go over the calls again with this but what he did during the World Cup was more harmful to the game than anybody making money.

36:25It was the integrity of the game and we all know what I'm talking about. He was an utter disgrace but he walked about this World Cup here in North America and beyond, as Jules said, as if he was untouchable. And I said it down when we were doing the shows in New York. It was almost like the Wild West in the old days. It was the lawlessness. It was like, I'm FIFA, I'm Infantino, I'm going to give all these other countries a bundle of money and they're all going to vote for me and we're just going to do it my way. And you know what? Like most people, he just took it too far. His position is totally untenable.

36:59And if somehow the confederations around the world cannot get this man out, I worry about where he's going to go with the organisation. The only way it's going to change is if all the other presidents shame the people that stick with him and shame them into doing it because we don't know how deep some of these guys are in his pocket. That's the biggest problem. Jules, do you want to add anything before we promote your podcast? no just the boys are right but they are a phase uh who are still with him very much others are taking away the support that they uh had promised to give him for the next election that i mentioned in 2027 so next year so it will be very interesting to see the next few weeks because like we were saying the pressure is mounting more and more on him and he feels very much isolated right now to the point that he might not last until the next election wait it says your podcast is back to August the 17th, Jules.

37:57What are you doing? That's right. I'm stopping that podcast to be with you on this massive, great show. FIFA president Gab Marcotti. He's got a ring to it. You could have thanked him. What do you mean? He's back in a minute. Thanks very much. He's here in a minute. You can catch up on old ones if you like. They're available over on our website.

38:35We'll be right back.

38:46before the break Florian Wurz would score. Big season ahead for him. What? What? Second half, here we go then. Leeds get one back, Kerkhez loses it, Aronson scores. Big season ahead for him. Yes. Another one. US international wicket 2-1. Calvert-Lewin would make it 2-2 here. And then a couple of minutes later, Leeds to take the lead for the first time in the game. Sean Longstaff. What was that? What a shamble. Does have a pre-season friendly feel to it. Fringpong's injured, there we go Stevie. He'd come off here. Another surprise. Scary. He spent most of his time last season injured again. Iriola's saying it's not too serious, he hopes.

39:39And then Cavalui would make it 4-2.

39:45There we go, do you want to see the ins and outs of Liverpool then so far, in case you haven't been keeping track. Xhaka has come in, obviously he was on loan last season. Victor Munoz has come in, Salah Canarte and Robertson, of course, going out. How are you feeling, Stevie? Well, when I saw the draw for the first game of the season, what, four or five weeks ago? Who's it against? It's Newcastle away, and I thought, oh my goodness. actually now I'm kind of glad it's Newcastle because I think they're probably the only team in a worse mess than we are so actually it's going to be an incredible performance a game because I'm not quite sure who's going to play for Liverpool and I'm not quite sure who's going to play for Newcastle so both teams are in absolute turmoil right now Shall we talk about Barcoller obviously Jules he's been linked heavily why would he go to Liverpool?

40:38That's a question because they need him because he he will start probably that he wants to play more of a starting role than what he's had at PSG last season although to be fair until the injury that he suffered against Chelsea in the last season of the Champions League he was starting and the way he was on the bench it was him and Varskelia very much so so his desire to leave I mean it's not even a desire because I think he would be happy to stay at PSG he's got two years left on his contract But if a club like Liverpool and he said to Liverpool already that he would be happy to go there if they find an agreement with PSG, if Liverpool can find an agreement with PSG and PSG are happy with the offer on the table, then I think Barcola would go there.

41:22So for him, right now he's really relaxed. He's still on holidays. He's going to come back soon. But he's thinking, if I'm staying, I'm happy. We just want back-to-back Champions League. and sure he would like to start a bit more because he didn't start in the Champions League final or semi-final in this season or quarterfinals. But he's still a key player in that Luis Enrique team. And if he goes to Liverpool, he'd be a key player there. For Iraula, I think he fits very much the philosophy of Iraula, certainly in terms of intensity with and without the ball. There's a lot of room for improvement in his play, especially against low blocks, especially in the Premier League, I think with the physicality, very different to Ligue 1.

41:57He's only played in Ligue 1 through his whole career now. so there's a lot of things that he will have to adapt and integrate in his game but I think it would be great for him to go to Liverpool the problem right now and we've been saying it a lot is that the valuation that Liverpool have for him is here around let's say between £80 and£100 million and that's really top, top, top and what PSG would want for him which is more £140 to£150 the gap is too big for now That's you know he's not worth£150 million he's not No, but you can talk about I agree They've got Isaac and who's Eketiki and possibly Bercola and one or two...

42:33What? Who's playing centre-half? Who's playing right back? Conor Bradley? Frim? I saw Fring... We went to the Community Shield last year. I saw Fring Pong. I know he did well. Did well at Celtic, Scottish football. Did well in Germany. I saw him at the Cup. I saw him at that Community Shield. I was astonished how small he is. I thought, he can't... I like him. Trust me, he made you... Made you look tall. I like him and Jules. So you look at that position there. Conor Bradley was injured. He got a problem at right back. Robertson obviously is gone, but he was kind of struggling a little bit, so that's not a surprise.

43:12And then the other question is, is Kierkegaard in his second season going to get a boost because his old manager has came in, who obviously he played very well under? Are they banking on that? Because that back line, Stevie, would worry me if I was... I mean, right now, you're looking at Van Dijk and Gravenberg as your two centre-backs. And neither of them are going to be 100 % fit. Did you say Gravenberg? Yeah. Who else is going to play there? Leone, coming back from injury, he's not fit. The young French centre-back, the Sainz. Jacquet. Jacquet. He's been injured already. He's not going to be ready.

43:52Who's going to play? Joe Gomez. Oh, surprise, Joe Gomez is injured. Steve Nicol. After seven minutes. Steve Nicol. Fram Pong's injured can't play full-back Bradley's injured can't play full-back I know I mean is Sob is like going to end up playing right back again I mean it's just every which way you turn there are question marks all over the show If you make a change with Arne Slott right and you made that big decision you kind of thought it was coming but then it seemed it wasn't and then it obviously happened once you make that decision and you go for a very a very very good up and coming younger manager who's done good work in Spain and very good work in England.

44:31You can't bring him in and then leave him hanging. Unless this changes in the next three or four weeks, however long to the end of the window, and it's never good to do business that late, as Stevie said, you've got to give him a chance. And what we saw last season was not just down to Arne Slott, it was down to the personnel in certain positions as well. Yeah, the plan was horrendous last year. And it doesn't look as though it's changed any day, obviously. They are, though, third favourites to win the Premier League. That's absolute nonsense. They're not favourites to be in the top four right now.

45:09Oh, there's the echo again. In fact, right now, they're not favourites to be in the top six. There are absolutely easily six teams in a better position right now than Liverpool are. He's back, Liverpool Echo, don't worry. If you looked at what Liverpool have done and you looked at, for example, what Tottenham have done, they've spent money they've signed some really good players and they're backing De Zerbe at the moment it's going to be fun Stevie Jules thank you very much mate sorry about all the technical problems I have nothing to do with me so I don't know why I'm apologising much appreciated just a reminder to keep up to date with all the latest transfer news check out Transfer Talk over on the website

45:47opening weekend of Scotland Craig with a close eye on this tie Celtic taking on Dundee. I didn't even know it was a play. I thought it was a pre-season friendly. There you go.

46:04Tierney. Tierney with a few arms when you cross the ball into the box. With the ball in.

46:13Are they favourites to win this season? All right. Yes. Vazinho arrives in Chile. The Cape Verde goalkeeper of course made such a name for himself during the World Cup. He is very much living a fairytale life at the moment. Look at the reception from the crowd at the airport. Great stuff there for the veteran goalkeeper. Look at them all. Lovely. What is he, 40? Yep. Oh dear me. What is it, Rodri being 30? To the South African Premier League. We've got a blooper coming up I assume or something brilliant. Let's take a look. Oh no. Oh no! I never saw that coming. Wow! Oh that's fantastic. And he stayed on.

47:00Does he not get a straight red for that? He should, aye. He's kind of looking like he stayed... He got confused with the rugby lines, apparently. What rugby lines? He didn't know he'd already ran. There it is, there's the line. Oh, there is a blue line. Or maybe the fact that he was half a kilometre from his goal. Oh, Redmay. There it is. It happens. It's going. Yeah. All right. Yeah. Good stuff. Thank you very much. That is it. That brings us to the end of today's show. Be sure to stay tuned, though. Cricket and Stevie will be answering the questions about their holiday. Be sure to stay with us.

47:47Welcome in to the latest edition of Extra Time. Thank you for all of your questions. A lot of people welcome us back. You've got a black mark inside. Somebody whack you? Yeah, I walked into a tree. So I was cutting the grass. I turned around. It does sound like a lie, but I promise you it's not. I turned around and there was a tree there. A little bit puffy on that side. Yes, yeah, they tried to put makeup on it. What? No, nobody punched me. Finally, Arteta tracked me down. Punched me. You got back from the World Cup on your holiday. There was an Arsenal fan there, Bosh. Did you guys miss doing the show or glad you had the break?

48:21Well, a little caveat in that is that you were still doing digital, Stevie. I was, yeah. So you didn't have a break. Yeah, but it was from home though, wasn't it? That's all right. You didn't have to put pants on. Correct. Exactly. Lovely mental limits for everybody. Craig, did you miss doing the show? I mean, it's always nice to have a break. Yes, yeah. But it's nice to be back. You didn't wake up today going, oh, no, we've got to go to work. It was nice. It was very good. It was ESPN Golf Day yesterday. Me and Stevie played in the team. Stevie, what was your worst moment with Dan during golf?

48:52I don't think we had one. No, it was good. No, it was nice. No, it was a good cry. It was a good shot. It was a good day. We had a laugh. Very, very good. A few beers. Well, I did. You did, didn't you? Well, it's funny that. You had my portion. It's funny that because... It's funny that because... When we finished the shows before the little break we had, you went in. He was moaning like hell. Do you remember? He says, oh, I can't believe I signed up for it. I know, I know. I was so surprised. Do you know when you sign up for something and he says, then you just regret it? I knew, I knew because I write, I messaged, I go, I know you won't want to, but do you want it?

49:29He goes, yeah, actually I will. I was like, blooming, eh? He's going to regret that many times. Yeah, he did. And even when I picked him up yesterday morning, you could tell he was completely regretting it. Well, I'd forgotten that it normally takes five and a half hours. Yeah, yeah. Which is a long time. scramble so yeah everyone yeah which is a long time yeah um but as it turned out it didn't it actually went pretty smoothly yeah yeah it's all actually lovely the weather was good yeah everyone was happy it was good mood craig how many pre-season friendlies have you watched during this off time welcome back

50:03uh no you're doing live for wrexham yeah i wish i wish my answer was the same as yours Greg and Stevie, after you played in the World Cup, how much time did you need to rest, recharge the batteries and get prepared for the upcoming season? Didn't get it. So what was your break? I couldn't tell you exactly. I think it was a couple of weeks. Because the Scottish season's already started, hasn't it? Yeah, I can't remember. I think probably... Did it start this early normally? No, no, no, no. It would have been almost the same as England. There's maybe a week's difference normally. this does seem, it actually seems bonkers, doesn't it?

50:43That any league that plays from August through end of May, which most of Europe does. Apparently you started August 1st. The 98-99 season. August 1st? Mm-hmm. Who's told you that? He's got no idea. Well, that maybe explains why. He's got no idea. Just in general, I mean. That maybe explains why we got such a short break. I can remember coming back and getting a bit of a holiday and then running round, then back out running round Hamilton Park where we used to have to run round, so not a lot. But I'm surprised it was August the Fosn. That's what I'm being told. Listen to him. You beat Dunferlin 5-0.

51:29Who? Beat who? Dunferlin. Is it Dunferlin? Dunferlin. Dunferlin? That's actually hard to say. Dunferlin. Dunferlin. Dunferlin. Firmalin Dunfermalin Or as my old The late great Vim Jansen My coach said Dunflumflin Dutchman Do you remember that game? Yeah of course I remember I scored the hat trick He's told you that Hasn't he? It was the unfurling Of the flag And they were booing Fergus McCann The owner of Celtic At the time On the day they were Unfurling the flag Because he had sacked What flag were they unfurling The league flag Am I saying it as if This is an obvious thing? Well it is The league flag?

52:09Yeah, the league title flag. Oh, OK. Listen. You learn something every day, so... And it was a bit of a nasty atmosphere because Jock Brown and Fergus were not the most popular fans. And then you scored a hat-trick. Right from your World Cup heroics. Blonde hair, back on, move on. Yes, August 1st. I can't remember that being that early. Stevie, as a defending expert and for younger audiences, how good was Beresi? He was passed away this week.

52:53Arguably the best. Right. You're probably looking at Franz Beckenbauer being slightly ahead of him. What made him so good?

53:03Every single facet of defending, he was absolutely spectacular at it, to the point that he never had to make a challenge. He wasn't the biggest and he wasn't the quickest. He was about 5 '9.5, 5 '10 maybe tallest.

53:21Read it before anybody else read it. Never made a challenge because he never had to. He was either there first or it wasn't right and he would stand off and let the big dunkman control it and then he would step in. He was in charge of his whole back four. I mean, this guy wasn't just playing his own game. He was in charge of the whole back four. That line that AC Milan had. The offside. Aye, was run by this guy. I mean, every single thing that he did, he made it look easy. Never made mistakes. I mean just every single thing, every single thing that you have to do to be a defender he was arguably the best at all of them.

54:04Just incredible. I played against him in the other 21s. Right. Back in 19, I'm going to say 82. And did you know then that he was special? Did it hit you? Because I imagine you can have... Well, listen, you're always on the way back after the game, you know, when you're playing against teams like Italy and the bigger names, you're always thinking, oh I wonder who's... Yeah. And to ask Frank McIvane, Frank McIvane, he played against him that day. And I remember speaking to Frank and saying, you know, because Frank, this was Frank's first game as well. OK. And Scotland said, how did you? He went, he said, well, yeah, he said, it was great.

54:34He said, but I couldn't get away from this wee guy. Because we didn't know who Billy is. He was. Of course. And Frank didn't even know his name. But we figured it out. He said, I couldn't get away from this guy. He said, every time I turned up, he said, he was right there. He was right there. Every time I went for a ball, he just got there before me. We said just Just Different class With Newcastle Losing so much talent And now Eddie Howell Craig Who saved them From relegation When he took over Are they now In a relegation battle? No I don't think so There's some bad teams Oh do you not think so?

55:08No there's some bad teams Ipswich are up Hulls come up Yeah Who else? Coventry Coventry come up They'll sign some players But And then there's a bunch of You know a bunch of average teams. I forgot about that. I forgot about the three teams that have come up. So, you know, they'd have to really strip that. I forgot about them. Yeah. I mean, they have signed some players, albeit you'd have to get on Wikipedia. But they've sold, you know, they're clearly... All this investment from Saudi, that Newcastle were going to do this, that, and the next thing, not happening. Which youngster will have a better season performance-wise for their club?

55:46Gumoa or Dauman? Inghamour, Bergman. Inghamid, fool.

55:55I'd have to say Inghamour because I think he'll get more opportunities. Right. That's the main reason. I mean, Simon's a great player, but I don't know where the opportunities are coming from on a regular basis. Whereas Inghamour, right now, you could argue Inghamour's starting with Liverpool at Newcastle. Centre back. Wherever he wants. Final question. Stevie, given both transfer windows, do you think Manchester United will finish above Liverpool for a second consecutive season? Does that prospect of Hall joining United scare you? It doesn't scare me, but right now, looking at the two squads, there's no question that Manchester United are in a way better position than Liverpool are.

56:35That's it. You can't argue with that. That's it. We'll be talking about that and a lot more, of course, on ESPN FC, which is back, which is with you every single day now for the rest of our lives. Well, until they chuck us. we will be back tomorrow to discuss more Stevie back, Ali joins us as well you off tomorrow? is it back one day? one day and done? I'm back Thursday oh good, what are two days off? you're taking it easy just slowly getting it you've got to just feed yourself in