The Football Reporters: When will Cristiano Ronaldo score his 1000th goal?

22:51And I must admit, I was thinking, well, I'm not really sure that he's capable of doing it in the Premier League anymore. And I was proved completely wrong. I mean, I just caught a thing on Sky Sports the other day with players who have gone into the 100 club. And the amount of goals that he scored in that first season back is unbelievable, really. In a team that wasn't particularly performing very well. And the one thing that I think he probably deserves more credit for than he gets is that he's kind of redefined how we feel about numbers in general. I mean, I'm just looking at some of the numbers that I jotted down before we came on here, that he's got 226 international caps and 143 goals now.

23:31Beth's a bit younger than us, Mark. But we grew up in an age where we felt that maybe 50 international goals for England could never be achieved. You know, Bobby Charlton had, what, 49? Gary Lineker never got there. Wayne Rooney just about got there. I know Harry Kane has reached it and gone on to, what, 70-odd? But we're talking about double the amount of international goals that Harry Kane has got. And numbers like that, I mean, to go through a career, what, he's probably played 1 ,200 games and he's nearing 1 ,000 goals. We're now talking about numbers that define every other player that comes through.

24:03You know, obviously I see Erling Haaland an awful lot. And if Erling Haaland isn't scoring a goal every other game, or a game, sorry, he drops below the standard that's been set by Ronaldo and to a certain extent Messi. And I just think that you can't justify that. I don't know how you go through a career with those kind of numbers because it's going to affect everyone now through the history of football. Every striker who scores goals is going to be judged against those numbers and they're just superhuman. It's interesting you mention his international record because it is ridiculous and you write that so many players and I think Harry Kane, like you mentioned, scoring so many more goals for England that you would ever expect and Lewandowski's another one.

24:45It's a nice little segue into the second part of this chat on European football because have a guess how many goals Italy's top scorer of all time has got. Put up who it is. Top scorer of all time, Del Piero possibly with, 50? No, it's Gigi Riva with 35 goals. Italy's all-time top scorer's only got 35 goals. And the reason I mention that is because obviously Italy have had a bit of a poor qualifying campaign again. They're facing the playoffs for the World Cup for the third successive time. Now they missed out on qualification in 2018 and 2022 through the playoffs. And this time, you know, obviously Italy will be a seeded team in the playoff pro on Thursday, but they don't score enough goals.

25:24They had to score. I was in Moldova on Friday when they needed to score maybe 9 or 10 against Moldova to give themselves a chance of of qualifying with a win against Norway on Sunday. And obviously they lost against Norway. Norway topped the group, largely thanks to World of England's goals. But Italy can't score a goal. Now, the point I mention Italy is because their coach, Gennaro Gattuso, said after the Moldova game that he feels that the European World Cup qualification path should change. He says that it's not fair that the seven out of the 10 South American teams qualify. I think there's maybe nine African teams qualify now and 16 European teams.

25:56Now, 16 is a lot, but obviously it's a big confederation in Europe. And we've got a situation where Sweden, who are finishing rock bottom of their group with one win so far, have a playoff place because they won the Nations League group a year ago. Sweden could qualify for the World Cup, we've said a bit to this. So I guess I have some sympathy with Gesuso's point that it's not really a fair procedure to qualify for the World Cup. You have to earn your place there, but Italy will six of their eight games. So, you know, guys, I mean, Rob, Beth, what do you think? Do you think that we should change the way that the European qualification process is done?

26:28Is it fair or are Italy this morning over sour grapes? You'd go first. I mean, I think it's so convoluted, isn't it? And, you know, the past few days, there have been a few crazy games. Obviously, the Republic of Ireland won. It was the sort of the prototype of just the craziest, craziest night and such an incredible achievement for them and huge disappointment from Hungary. But just things can change so, so quickly. You know, one goal completely turns a group on its head. and I suppose it makes for really compelling viewing, but it also makes it really complicated when you're trying to work out who's getting through and who's in a playoff place and who's not.

27:07I think the thing is, whichever way you do it, you're always going to have people saying it's unfair. Sweden, that whole debate about Sweden potentially qualifying at Italy's expense, Sweden will arguably top the Nations League group. They did what was required at that time and they should reap the rewards of that. but it is it is sort of mad when you look at Italy's recent record that they could end up not going to the World Cup yet again but this is why people at FIFA have paid a lot of money to come up with these decisions to try and work out how all of this works. I think to me it's similar to the way that the qualification worked for the Club World Cup because I remember that we did a pod didn't we before there saying how can it be a Club World Cup without some of the best teams in the world.

27:56Obviously Barcelona weren't there, Liverpool who were our reigning champions of England didn't qualify. The issue with all of these tournaments is that you want countries from different parts of the world but they're not necessarily always going to be the stronger teams. Now if Italy qualified for the World Cup would they do better than say Cape Verde? Probably. But is the tournament, is the World Cup tournament better for having more smaller nations like Cape Verde and teams that haven't qualified necessarily that often? Is it a better experience? Is it a better show because those teams are there and Italy kind of just have to suck it up and say, well, we've not been good enough?

28:37To me, that's the two sides of the debate. Listen, I agree. You need variety and you need the World Cup debuters. That's what adds the colour to it. Again, I'm sure my age here, but I remember the World Cup in 1990. Cameroon brought so much colour and excitement to it because nobody expects them to do what they did, and they were fantastic. But had, this is the strange scenario in Europe, had Romania beaten Bosnia-Herzegovina over the weekend, then we'd have had a scenario this week where Romania would have had to beat San Marino quite heavily, which they wouldn't anyway, for San Marino to qualify for the playoffs, because they won the Nations League Group D group a year ago.

29:14So San Marino were that close to getting the World Cup playoffs, which is ridiculous. But that shows how strange and convoluted the European path is. Now, there has been suggestions that it should change, that UEFA should change it to kind of mirror the Champions League, the new style Champions League situation, where you've got a league of teams where everybody plays teams from a different path, a different part. So England, for instance, would maybe play, they'd play one game against Spain, they'd play Bulgaria, they'd play Andorra, they'd play Greece, so that you're playing teams at each different level, but ultimately the top 16 teams will qualify for the World Cup.

29:47I think that would be a good idea. I think that would help, you know, make it a bit of a fairer situation and not reward teams for what they did 18 months ago in the Nations League. But, you know, the Champions League for me has worked. I mean, Rob, what do you think? No, I agree that the new Champions League format has been good. I mean, I was, again, sceptical before it was introduced, but I was quite impressed last year. My only slight concern with it is that the margin for error in it, in the Champions League, is massive. And you had a situation last year where City were absolutely dreadful in it, but still qualified.

30:15Now, you can't make that case with the UEFA qualifying for a World Cup because the margin for error clearly with Sweden has been far too much. Now, I imagine that UEFA would argue and say, well, if we were doing this pod five years ago, maybe one of the topics would have been that we're having all these meaningless friendlies in international breaks. No one cares. No one's watching international football because the games don't matter. They introduced the Nations League, which does matter. And it does matter to teams like Sweden because now they've got a chance to qualify for a World Cup that really they shouldn't be going to.

30:46So UEFA might be listening to this and think, well, what do you want? how do you please everyone? You know, you can't have a situation where the Nations League or whatever replaces the Nations League doesn't mean anything but also you can't have a situation where you can be absolutely dreadful in World Cup qualifying finish bottom of your group and still get to go. I also think as well from a slightly different angle I mean you look at obviously Liverpool England's record in the World Cup qualifiers has been flawless pretty much but then you look at the teams that they have played and you think well you know has that necessarily prepared them for for a World Cup next year.

31:20And, you know, they obviously might play a couple of friendlies before then. You know, we don't know. But in terms of preparing countries, in terms of, I guess, generating genuine excitement within countries, because, you know, you have obviously your staunch England fans who will watch every game. But, you know, probably the vast majority of people don't have an awful lot of interest in watching England versus Andorra or, you know, England versus Albania with the greatest respect. So I think that model that you talked about, Mark, about that Champions League-esque kind of model where you're playing people from different parts, I think that could actually help teams in terms of preparing them for these tournaments and also generating a wider interest in that qualification process.

32:01We just know that Sweden, with Victor Jokeres and Alexander Isak up front, when they get a bit of form, they're going to come to March and they're going to be the luckiest team in the world. They're going to have the worst qualification campaign. And some top-seeded team is going to get Sweden with Isak and Jokeres in top form and Sweden are going to qualify for the World Cup. And that will be a bit of a travesty on the teams that have actually done quite well to finish where they have in their groups. But that's how it is. And I think we'll wait a while for UEFA and FIFA to make a change. But next, we're going to talk about player care and how football clubs are making it much more easy for players to settle in and thrive at their clubs.

32:37So Rob, you've written a piece about player care and how clubs look after their multi-million pound players, assets, make sure they can perform in terms of fitness-wise, mental health, all these sorts of factors which obviously combine to make a player perform at his best. So what can you tell us about how clubs are looking after their players and what might surprise a few people? yes so essentially this is about you know looking after players but also looking after players when they're not at the training ground essentially and the way that it's looked upon is that a player maybe spends what three to four hours a day at a training ground while they're there they're under the supervision of the manager the coaches the nutrition staff the medical staff but there are also 21 hours a day 22 21 hours a day where the players aren't at the training ground and if you're seeking to get the best out of your players, you need to have just as much focus on those 22 hours as you do on the hours that they are spent at the training ground.

33:32And it's not a new thing, player care. I think every Premier League club will have a player care department, but it is becoming more and more important. And it's becoming more and more important because of the search for those marginal gains, that kind of 1%. So player care teams obviously don't win Premier League titles, but they help look after players and get them to a point at which they are able to perform at their best, essentially. And the way the piece starts is that in August, United took us around the newly revamped Carrington. They spent£50 million to revamp Carrington and some representatives of Man United took us around and also some of the architects and they explained why they did things in certain ways.

34:16And the one main thing that they said was that they wanted the players to walk through the front door and the first thing that they saw was not the manager's office it wasn't the ceo or the technical director the first thing that they wanted the players to see when they walked in the door was a player care office and the idea is that the players at man united walk through the door they see this group of people who were there to solve all of their problems outside of football essentially you leave your problems at the door and you go into training to focus on the football and be the best athlete that you can be essentially so that was a premise of the piece and kind of what goes with player care and kind of the science behind it.

34:52There is no science behind it, but the kind of the idea behind looking after the players in that way. Beth, I mean, you've had experience with Liverpool. I know that Liverpool's player care team is quite well established. Can you tell us how they've been, I mean, looking after the players in the wake of what happened, the tragic situation with Diogo Jota in the summer, the sense that every player's got the opportunity to speak to professionals in the sense that if this is becoming an issue that they're struggling with? Yeah, well, I mean, that was one of the first things that the club put in place after obviously what happened in the summer with Jota was that there will be a counsellor who will be available on site for the players, for staff to speak to and to help navigate through this really unprecedented, really difficult thing.

35:39and as far as I know, that counsellor is still available to all of the players if they so need because grief, obviously we know, is not linear. There's a lot of talk at the moment about how much Jota's passing has affected the squad and of course we're only speculating. It's impossible to quantify how something like that has affected the squad but it will have had a bearing on some of the players, probably some more than others. I think you see maybe some of the body language and the emotion of Mo Salah at points throughout the season. Virgil van Dijk at times looks like he's been carrying a little bit of a burn.

36:15And so I think the importance of having people that you can speak to and open up to is something that has been really important for Liverpool. And it's the same on the women's side as well. The women's team at the moment having a really tough time on the pitch. They got a really good result at the weekend, actually. they held the reigning champions Chelsea in the WSL but they had to win again this season but the struggles on the pitch have been amplified by the fact that their long-term manager Matt Baird, he passed away earlier in the season in tragic circumstances and then their former kit man passed away as well not too long ago so you know the human element of what these footballers have to go through is so important.

37:01And, you know, in both the men's and the women's game, you know, in wider society, we're talking now a lot more about mental health and that's great that those conversations can be a bit more open. And I think football clubs, including Liverpool, are trying to make sure that those things aren't to do and there are always people on hand that people can speak to. Rob, I mean, there have been suggestions that footballers now get everything done for them. And I know that some players, certainly players who've retired, has said that the moment they leave a football club is the moment they actually become an adult because they're 16 until they retire.

37:33The point being made is that, like you said, they can walk through the door, the food will be made, it'd be perfect food, everything that needs to be done. And I think there are opportunities, I guess, for players to take advantage of this. And I know you've got a couple of examples of players that have been, I mean, I'll chip in with a couple when you've done, but I know that certain players don't treat it the right way, shall we say? Yeah, I mean, so there is a balance to it. And one of the people who is quoted in the piece from a Premier League club admits that it is a balance. They want players to be able to perform and they know that things like, I don't know, dealing with a car tax bill or having a dispute with a landlord can tie up mental space.

38:15And they don't want players thinking about that kind of stuff when they're playing matches or training. On the other hand, they don't want to pamper players because they know that it doesn't serve a purpose to pamper a player and make them completely detached from everyday life because that's not the kind of player you need. So it is a balance. And there are examples in the piece about the good and the bad. There's one story in there that a player had gone to a player care team and asked for someone to come around to shoot a bird because the bird was knocking on the windows of their house and his girlfriend was scared of the bird.

38:46And it was basically causing him a problem and he wanted the club to solve it. Now, while that sounds ridiculous and elements of it are, the player care team at that club could understand that it was a problem because the player was focused on this bird and couldn't or was wasting mental energy focusing on this and not playing properly. So they obviously didn't come around and shoot the bird. They bought a£10 thing off Amazon to scare the bird away with ultrasonic sound or whatever they did. there are other examples where you know a manager has has completely dismissed a player because a player has been late for training and the manager is saying well that's one professional like i'm just not dealing with him and the player care team's gone to the player and said well why are you being late and he said well i it actually came from a small town in africa where you know they didn't they didn't have um you know access to proper timekeeping devices and he always said when he grew up a time of the meeting was almost a suggestion it wasn't that you had to be there And the player care team had to go to him and say, well, no, you're in the UK now.

39:49If you're five minutes early, you're already late. This is our kind of way of life. And they talked him through all that and made sure for two or three weeks that he was on time for everything. That then made him feel more part of the club. The manager's back on his side. He's getting picked, he's playing better and everyone's happy. So there is a fine line. You can't pamper these players. Often they're getting everything done for them anyway, but clubs don't want them to be completely detached from everyday life. but there are instances where these players need help because ultimately their job is to perform on the pitch and the clubs don't want them having to deal with all these kind of outside noises.

40:24And if there's a team of people at the club who can help them deal with that, they would see that as a good thing. Yeah, I've got to know a couple of player liaison officers over the years, of player care, player liaison, maybe they've changed in terms, but I know for a fact that they see their role as basically being almost like the best mate of the players, not in a kind of a contrivery, but just being the guy in the club that the players can go to and just let off steam and just say, look, the manager's doing this to me, or my family situation, just to be that kind of sounding board. But again, in terms of taking advantage, I know of one that was, basically his job was to go and pay the parking tickets amassed by one of the players.

41:01And there was one player in particular that used to leave his car outside the, before barriers at Manchester Airport, leave his car outside the entrance to Manchester Airport. And he could dump it there because his view was that he earned so much when he could pay the fines. So obviously you can't live like that. So this guy had to go and collect his car and put it back to where it should have been. And I remember there's a classic story about a Man United player going back a few years where he bought himself a new car and he rang one of the player care team and said, I need help, I need to change my car, but my car's broken down.

41:33So the member of the player care team went to the training ground and found out that the broken down car was actually a puncture. Didn't let a change of puncture. So he wanted a new car because it had a flat tyre. so it's a bit like yours with the guy with the bird being shot some players let player care do everything for them even the ridiculous but they do have a role and that role is almost like the old days of a club chapter just something that could be there just to just to let the player vent off a bit of steam and just kind of you know not burden the club with his problems just that just the matey guy in the corner will say yes you're right man i'll look after you i'll sort it out i'll deal with it for you i think one of the areas that has changed a little bit is that maybe in the past the player care team would have been completely separate from every other kind of coach and um and you know and manager in the training ground and now they're increasingly getting brought into kind of the the top table so there's another story in there in the piece that um one of the player care team was working for a manager who really bought into this idea of you know not just a player they're a human being we need to be across everything and so he was allowed into these kind of top level manager manager meetings with the head of nutrition the head of medical services, all these like key heads of department.

42:42And there was an instance where they were talking about a certain player and the guy from the medical department said, well, we're actually tracking his weight and he's lost three kilograms in the last however months, say, and no one knew why. And they were sort of speculating that maybe he was ill and maybe he was skipping meals. And it actually turned out the player care representative piped up and said, well, actually his girlfriend's been away for a month. She's gone back home and he's been living on his own for a month. He can't cook. She was doing all the cooking. and he's probably not eating properly.

43:10And they went to him and found out that that was actually happening. So they were able to sort out a chef to go to his house to cook his meals or to buy in the meals so the meals were delivered. But if that player care rep hadn't been in that meeting, they maybe never would have known what the issue was and why the player was losing weight and why he wasn't performing on the pitch. So while, I don't know, maybe five, ten years ago, we were in a situation where these player care people were kept to one corner of the training ground and the players went to see them to, I don't know, to pay a parking ticket or wherever it was.

43:39They're increasingly being brought into the main meetings because more and more clubs understand that they aren't just football players, they are humans. And if you can make sure that these players are happy, you're basically halfway there to getting them to a point where they can perform on the pitch. I think the thing is with a lot of these players is, you know, it's easy when you think about the price tags that are attached to a lot of them, but they are just young lads, a lot of them. and you know a lot of them have moved to different countries away from away from family away from friends which you know if you take any sort of 18 year old boy and move him to a different country where he maybe doesn't speak the language and he doesn't have friends and he doesn't have family you know you can understand what kind of mental physical effect that might have on on someone and when you throw into that the pressure that comes with playing at the at the highest level you know I remember the first time that sort of we as the media spoke to Florian Veerts it was after a pre-season game um and brought him out this obviously this new sign in potential British record of his sort of add-ons are met and you think you know he's an absolute superstar and you bring him out and he's you know just a quite a quiet unassuming you know 22 year old kid really not a kid but you know he's he's it's a young a young man who is obviously adjusting to life in a new country and it's you know i think sometimes we may be we may be a little bit harsh on players and we think you know that they're almost superhuman and because they you know come at a certain price tag they should you know make seamless transitions to to play in at the highest level and sometimes actually you know it is those little marginal gains and making sure that they've got that human support as well that that is really helpful i mean it's it's only a recent thing as well you know this seems such an obvious thing to have this player care team but I mean there's two examples and going back a few years Mark Hughes will always tell you the story when I think when he was managing Blackburn at Man City how much it was important to him to make sure that new signings were kind of looked after very quickly so he referenced his move to Barcelona in the 80s from Man United he said he was basically dumped at the airport young only in his 20s and basically left to fame for himself in a country he had no knowledge of the language barely been out of his own country but then he compared that to Bayern Munich a year later and he said Bayern had everything, you know, even in the 80s.

45:58They had the house, the house fear, the fridge, the cooker, the car, everything was dealt with. But 20 years on in the Premier League, that wasn't the case. And I think Michael Owen tells a similar story when he went to Real Madrid. You know, only 20 years ago, Michael Owen, world superstar at the time, him and his family basically left in a city centre apartment where his wife and young family were just left to fend for themselves. So football has caught up really slowly. And I know that there are examples in recent years of players being signed by very big clubs that have been basically just dumped in city centre apartments without thinking, have you got a family?

46:28Do they got a family with kids who want to play in the garden? So the fact that these clubs are now catching up is really important. I still think there's quite a long way to go because, you know, it's not a finished art. There are still clubs that are learning on the job, but it's obviously getting better. And, you know, I think Rob's piece has shed light on that. And you're right that a couple of the guys I spoke to before said that, you know, maybe 20, 30 years ago, there was a tactical evolution in football on the pitch. After that, there's a medical revolution where clubs are really looking after the nutrition of these guys, the way that they're treated when they've got injuries.

47:02And actually the human side of it was left alone until relatively recently. And more and more, and it goes back to what Beth was saying there about Diogo Jota, that you're talking about, with that one example, something that has had a massive impact on a load of players and an entire dressing room, but you can't really quantify it. You know, there's often in football, we want to measure things by numbers and the player care team essentially deal with everything that you can't quantify. You know, how can you quantify whether a player is kicking off a football match and he feels all right? You can't, it's completely impossible.

47:38And, you know, maybe just going back to Jotts, maybe we should be, you know, factoring in that kind of the grief and the devastation of what's happened to that dressing room when we talk about what's happening on the pitch, because it's very easy for us and we're all guilty of it, particularly on this podcast, of separating what's on the pitch and what's off the pitch and not really joining those two together. And the idea of the player care teams at Premier League clubs, and particularly I imagine in the instance of Liverpool this season, is that those two things are joined up because all of these things have an impact on Premier League players.

48:10And we have a tendency just to look at these boys and the women who play the WSL as robots and just expect them to go out and perform no matter what's going on in their private life. Now you buy a card. And now you buy a card. With the eRezept on your KKK and the ShopApotheke App come your subscription to your products directly. Just the app open, KKK with eRezept on the eRezept and with the eRezept automatically to 20€ per meditament sparing. On the price of the price and with the price of the product. Do you like the idea? Then try it out in the ShopApotheke App.

48:51Rob you spoke about how Manchester United how that's one of the innovations that I guess they've brought in to to help give them that extra edge on the pitch and Mark I know you've written a piece about Man United's plans to transform the the fortunes obviously they're on a on a good run at the moment but just tell us a little bit more about that piece and about the plans that United have to try and get back to where they feel they belong yeah so obviously there's there's been a A little bit of unusual stability at Man Utd in the past month. And, you know, I'll say that half-chokingly, but for the first time in maybe 18 months since Ineos took over, it feels like a sense of calm and direction has come back to United.

49:29You know, they've had the managerial changes, players have come and gone, they've had all sorts of issues with ownership. But there's a belief now that it's beginning to steady in the summer recruitment of, you know, of Cunha, of Mbouma, of Sesco, and Lammans has actually brought that stability forward a bit. So the next stop on the kind of the, I don't know, the trajectory back to where they want to be is to strengthen the midfield. They know they need to make the midfield better. They've got issues there because obviously Casemiro has been fantastic this season, but he's 34 in February. Manuel Agate hasn't really delivered since he's signed from PSG.

49:59The situation with Kobi Menuh needs to be resolved. So United's view is that they need to sign two new midfielders, and that'll be in the summer. There won't be any deals done in January. I think Rob has already written that. I think, to be fair, Rob as well has written that they're trying to do a deal with Casemiro in the summer to extend his contract. But, as Rob explained, that'll be on a much-reduced terms. And what I've been told is that United think they can clear a million pound a week off the wage bill next summer. Jadon Sancho will go, end of his contract. Marcus Rashford will probably go either to Barcelona to complete a permanent move or somebody else will pick him up because he's done quite well in La Liga.

50:33You've got Casemiro's wages will come off the wage bill and Harry Maguire as well. Now, Maguire and Casemiro may stay, but overall, United's savings will amount to about a million pound a week, which is£50 million a year. So United are looking at a variety of midfielders. Carlos Pelabra at Brighton were aware of they tried to, well, they certainly looked at him in the summer before being frightened off by Brighton's valuation. Adam Walton at Palace. Elliot Anderson at Nottingham Forest. Obviously, he's had a great season with Forest, then with England. And then you get Andrew O'Stiller at the FB Stuttgart.

50:57So the young options there, all affordable in terms of their wages and fees. So that's why United are prepared to be patient and make the deals next summer rather than panic in January. We can say right now that United won't sign anyone in January that's of any significance. they obviously need to address that midfield area. I think the piece that you've written quite well illustrates the issue and the situation United are in at the moment. Obviously, they need to make sure the business is profitable. Everyone will know about their money issues. They are working towards reducing the wage bill.

51:30They've got rid of David De Gea. He left on a free transfer. One of the highest earners, Rafael Varane. Another high earner left on a free transfer. You mentioned there Jadon Sancho, we expect will go. another high earner, Rashford again. Casemiro and Maguire are different situations, although at the moment, you know, Casemiro, especially the people around Casemiro, believe that he's more likely to leave than stay, even though United are open to the idea that he might sign a reduced deal on highly incentivised wages. So that while they're trying to reduce the wage bill overall, they're also trying to get to a point where United are back challenging for the top trophies.

52:06And often And those two things don't go together, do they? You know, you pay more money for better players to make your team better. So it's a difficult situation for Man United. I mean, the last conversations I had with them, they suggested that if they can get this money off the wage bill, that they'll be in a far better position with PSR. And, you know, what follows that when the Premier League clubs vote on that? And they will be in a position to bolster their midfield. I think it's pretty clear to every Man United fan that they're desperate for a central midfield or at least one kind of world-class central midfielder they probably also need a wing back.

52:39I think again though, it just shows that this whole process is going to take time and it's probably one of the reasons why United have to stick with Ruben Amrion because you can't be long-term in your vision for the squad, but short-term in your vision for the management. And you have to be aligned in both of those situations. And I think it would be a disaster for United to get to the point in the summer where they've got money to spend to revamp the squad. but also be looking for a new manager who might want different players. They need to be completely aligned with their entire vision for the club and the team to help them move forward.

53:14Because it is a long, as well as United have done in the last sort of two months, it is a long way back to the likes of Arsenal, Man City, even Liverpool, while they're struggling. The gap to those three teams in particular, and then the teams like Barthor and Real Madrid in Champions League, is massive and it's going to take a while before they can bridge that. It does take time and I think it was kind of, I was kind of encouraged by the fact that I was told that United turned down the chance to sign Romeo Lavia from Chelsea in the summer. So Chelsea wanted to offer him as part of the deal to sign Alejandro Ganaccio.

53:43And United's viewpoint was that as good a player as Romeo Lavia is, his injury situation is too much of a risk. Now, Jason Wilcox had Lavia at Man City as a kid come through the academy, took him to Seth Hampton during his year as director of football there. So he knows him well. It would have been an easy deal to do. But United held back from that thinking that let's not make the same mistakes as in the past by just making a knee-jerk reaction. So they declined the chance to sign Romeo Lavia. and it left them short in midfield this season. I mean, United have done quite well so far, but they are very dependent on Casemiro being fit and available.

54:12And as we've seen, when Casemiro is taken off after 70 minutes, United really struggles. So, Lavia might have helped them, but guess what? Romelu Lavia is injured at Chelsea right now, so United made the right call there. So, you know, it does take time. And I think, you know, look at Liverpool and Jurgen Klopp, it took a couple of summer windows to get to where they wanted to be. And they made some strategic signings, some long-term signings and that. I think finally United, the penny has dropped that, yes they've made some cutbacks the wage bill is going to drop again this year so they're in a better place and that means that they're in a better place to be strategic be patient and make the right signings rather than the wrong ones and that's and what you're going to find in the next couple of weeks before the january window is a clamor from a lot of united fans to spend money in january particularly because they're doing all right and i would suggest that it's far more beneficial for man united to not sign anyone in january and finished eighth than it is to sign a couple of players, short-term fixes and finish six this season, but sets back your entire plan because you haven't got the same money to spend in the summer.

55:09I think it's absolutely vital that United cut out all that kind of outside noise. And there will be noise from a lot of United fans saying they need a midfielder now, they need a centre-forward now, Sesco's not doing it, we need someone else in. For Man United to say, hold the cards close to the chest, say that we're not going to do anything and we're going to put all our resources, all our money in the summer to rebuild a team properly instead of using a January window, which is notoriously difficult to do business in, use that window for a couple of short-term fixes to maybe jump at one or two places up the table.

55:38It's far more important for United to stick to the long-term plan that they've got. Okay, well, that's it for this week. We're back next week after the Premier League returns, chatting about no doubt the North London Derby and what awaits in the Champions League for our big clubs.

56:17Thank you. not like Steuern. Steuern erledigt? Safe. With Visu Steuer. Now test your cost.