IT'S WORLD CUP WEEK!

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3:42Luke Moore: It's that moment when you read the play before the trend even starts, beat the clock on a campaign with a little help from AI, and connect with customers in real time, like you've trained for it your whole career. That's Contentful. World-class digital experiences built fast, built beautifully. create and launch personalised content in an instant across every channel your customers are watching no chaos no limits just open field take your shot at contentful.com this is an ambitious one I need everybody working with me all we do is sit here and be quiet we've got to do it say our names mate it's not no sometimes the interrupts it goes no no yeah well I will if it's wrong or it doesn't sound good I'll tell you Superhighways, coast to coast Easy to get anywhere everybody Welcome to the Football Ramble England 1, Scotland 1 and of course Florentino Perez 1 It's Monday at the June, I'm Marcus Speller I'm Jim Campbell And I'm Luke Moore

4:54Luke Moore: Hello everybody It's World Cup week Lovely stuff Oh, here we go. What a treat to be in a room with Marcus Speller at the start of a World Cup week. He came in the room and it was like a force of nature, wasn't it? Absolutely. And our hearts just sank, didn't they? Why? Let me pick them up again. Yeah, thank you, mate. Come on. Please. And if I put in with a little bit of James Brown doesn't do that. No, exactly. What will? By the way, for any fans out in America right now, or going out to North America, should I say, if you are worried about, oh, it's a big place, let me remind you what the great man said.

5:25Luke Moore: super highways coast to coast easy to get anywhere exactly so if you get stopped at the airport just quote James Brown it's a little known fact that James Brown did work for a long period of time on the United States of America tourist board there you go just telling everyone how to get around whole thing's a psyop what really was he just kept telling everyone to go to the bridge that was a problem that wasn't very good very good I was trying to remember Pittsburgh is the city I believe with the most bridges in the world there we go That's a great fact. There we are. There we go. So maybe that's where he did his best work.

5:57Maybe we could do a little bit of American trivia every single episode during the World Cup. I think that'd be nice.

6:02Luke Moore: Yeah. Yeah. I'm only semi-certain of that fact. No, okay. That doesn't matter. But they're the best facts often. So yeah, if you are sort of thinking, blimey, there's a lot of travel. Well, according to old James Brown, there's no destination that's too far. And so we can all get behind that. You don't want him as an alarm clock, do you? Get up! Get up! Maybe you do. I thought I was going to say. You're good. You're good. Shall we start with England 1, New Zealand 0? Yeah, I suppose we have to really. Let's really rev it up. England won their first of two World Cup warm-up matches after arriving in the States.

6:36Luke Moore: It's a clean sheet, it's a victory. It's striking fear in the heart of all of our potential opponents. Yeah, absolutely. They're going to have to sit through that and lose. Well, they could even win on like a really old carpet. Which is what it looked like they were playing on. Yeah, it did, didn't it? Don't have a go at... I would have a go at the surface. The surface was diabolical. It was like a sort of second-hand AstroTurf Emporium, wasn't it? It did look a bit like that. Well, the stadium's groundsman, Trett Altman, wrote on X before the match. That can't be his name. Trett. Trett. Yeah, maybe it was Trey, and I've spelled it wrong.

7:07Luke Moore: Anyway, Altman said, there are zero concerns about the playability and safety of the field. Well, I mean... From you, it might be. Yeah, I think the pitch was dreadful. and I'm not saying that's why England laboured but the pitch I mean you only need to have watched a handful of soccer games to realise that that pitch is not conducive to good football so I mean I don't know what to tell Trett let's blame the pitch I'm a bit straight away I'm a bit discombobulated by having to address a man called Trett yeah it's Berentz all over again it could be a typo it could be Trey and they do love a Trey in America they do well look that's us Trey yes very good but England yeah obviously the Arsenal contingent weren't involved because they've still got their so it's their fault do you reckon?

7:57possibly partly their fault Dean Henderson

7:59Luke Moore: what their fault we won yeah take that yeah you're welcome yeah Dean Henderson of course not involved as well respect the Europa League who could forget that the Europa Conference League who could forget that because I disrespect it myself respect it by not even going to the right name this is going to be a long World Cup this our club football is out the window the thing about the World Cup for us over the next month or so is just no detail No. There's absolutely no detail involved. We just get on with it. Trey, Europa League, conference day, who cares? Give a shit. We're there, though, and we're winning.

8:27Luke Moore: And Thomas Tuchel started Harry Kane and Ollie Watkins together. Let's call it what it was. It was a bonkers selection as well. Yeah. I'll put that absolutely clear. He's got no one else to play on the right, though, is he? That's the reason, surely. Yeah. Was Watkins playing on... Was it right centre-forward like it used to be? Or was it right... That's amazing. When did we do Lions Watch last week? What day was it? Wednesday. Was it Wednesday last week? And a fine job you did too. Thank you, Marcus. Great to get the respect of the goat. But we did say, he looks a bit like one of the discussion points we put down.

8:58I'll be honest with you, we hadn't planned much because we forgot you weren't going to be there. So we hastily wrote some stuff down on the pen and paper and asked some listeners. And the right-hand side of the midfield or whatever you want to call it, the right-hand side attacking space, if you like, did look light. And then we've got a lot of pelters on the YouTube for saying that wasn't the case. And then all of a sudden, next thing we know, Thomas Tuchel's picking Ollie Watkins.

9:21Luke Moore: So has Thomas Tuchel answered your question there? No. He's made it more complicated. Rio and Gamora, the player of the match. He was given player of the match. Again, no, because he's not going to be there. Yeah. He's first in line if somebody gets injured, surely. Oh, good then. That's fine then. We're going to do a hatchet job on someone so we can go. What I loved about it is obviously Tuchel said after the game that he said he wasn't best pleased in the first half because he felt players were kind of coasting, but he understood it. Rio and Gamaro thought to himself you know what it's my debut this is shop window stuff or whatever or at least you know an audition in case anyone gets injured I'm going to give it full pelt yeah but I think without being too cynical it is relatively I mean I say easy because obviously that is a relative kind of concept I think it's not surprising to put it a better way when and we've seen it happen loads of times before where if you're an attacking wide player in a modern game and you're super positive and relentless against average opposition, you can look good.

10:17Yeah, no, indeed. It's not like it was much easier for him to look good than it would have been probably for someone like...

10:24Luke Moore: Jordan Henderson. I mean, yeah. The whole thing was bananas. Henderson's in the squad. Yeah. And the chat before the game was, oh, Alex Scott's going to play. He's going to start and play the game. He didn't even feature. Henderson starts. Hang on, so you're annoyed that a player who isn't in the squad didn't start and that a player in the squad did start? No, I simply want to know what's happening. right I feel like coming into the World Cup I feel like I should at least partly know what's going on and that seems to be a fair comment there that is a fair request these friendlies are just odd though aren't they they're like it's like starting the first day of term with the last day of school do you know what I mean it's a really odd thing I understand why they do it obviously there are reasons about fitness and acclimatisation and the team gelling and having to look at players in a slightly more competitive environment in the training session, but, you know, neither of the teams that started are likely to be teams that featured during the actual tournament.

11:20Luke Moore: So you can only read so much into it. When you say neither of the teams, do you mean England first half or England second half? Yeah, that's exactly what I mean. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because basically they were completely different when they were. Thomas Tuchel's hair makes me worried that he's not equipped to make tough decisions. I think he makes, I think he makes, my problem is the opposite to that. I think he makes needlessly tough decisions that aren't tough and it annoys people. Right. And my take on this on Saturday night would be, this wasn't even a friendly. For the first time ever, and bear in mind we had some weird ones under Sven, but at least they were at Wembley.

11:58For the first time I come away from an England game thinking, I don't know if I can convince myself that was actually a proper England game. It felt like a training session with cameras. The crowd was weird. the goals themselves were weird the pitch was weird the selection was surrealist it was it was almost like it had been designed expressly to challenge how much the match going or TV watching England fan really wanted it it's like you're saying to them right okay you're excited about the World Cup are you let's see how excited you really are sit through this fucking load of old shit and see how you feel afterwards

12:33Luke Moore: the man of the match the man of the match wasn't in the squad which when you like if you tell someone that later out of context it's very confusing might I say though that cast your mind back to 1996 so if you think what happened there was bonkers it's basically England versus New Zealand you're going to go Hong Kong 11 I am but I'll get to the details but that was an excuse for a piss up back in the 90s I'll get to that in a minute but the game here is basically this is how hot it's going to be lads these are the conditions get used to it I've fed up of hearing about that that's the deal we've not even started yet mate But the reason why you're fed up with that is because if you think about recent World Cups, it's not actually been the issue that people thought.

13:15Luke Moore: Qatar obviously was hot, but it was, you know, in relative terms, their winter. And so it wasn't as blisteringly hot as it's going to be in North America. The World Cup before that was Russia. Yes, it can get very hot there, but it's still a country with a more temperate climate. Before that, you've got Brazil. Again, it was in their winter. It's still warm, especially in Manaus or wherever it was in the jungle when England played Italy. But other than that, it wasn't too bad. Before that, you've got South Africa again in their winter. It wasn't too bad. Germany. You have to probably go back to Japan and South Korea.

13:44Luke Moore: And even then, the weather wasn't such a big deal. France, you're going back probably to USA 94. Why are we still having the World Cup in this continent, Jim? So I think that's why people are making a big deal about the weather. We love talking about the weather in this country. We've been starved of that chat for many World Cups. Let us have it, Luke. You love talking about the weather. But the situation is, yes, it is essentially a glorified training match. But at least it's happening where the tournament is. I don't think you should get a cap for it. Fine. Tell that to Rio and Gamora as you take it off him.

14:15Luke Moore: Sorry, Jordan Henderson. Here's an interview of Rio and Gamora after the game. So, you got any plans for the summer? What are you up to? Well, they didn't have an interview with him. That's what I'm saying. They didn't because they couldn't. Right. Because it wasn't a real game. Did it actually happen? Confirm it to me it actually happened. England playing a Hong Kong 11 in Hong Kong weeks before Euro 96 kicked off in an unofficial match. They even dubbed it an unofficial match. What's that about? It's a piss up. I told you. It's team bonding. You're going to get jet lag ahead of the tournament.

14:44Luke Moore: Just think about how mad that situation was. Okay. But I don't think this matters in the context of what we're talking about here. When I say I'm fed up of hearing about it, I feel like it's mentioned so often that it's going to be hot. and that ultimately the whole of Florida is a reclaimed swamp which it basically is and it's hot and humid. I've been in Florida in March and it's been unbearably hot. It's been so hot that if you had to go back to the hotel and just relax it's been so bad. So ultimately it is what it is but it's the same for everyone. And England are going to be playing one of the is it the first group game?

15:19One of the group games at least in a temperature controlled stadium. So I don't know why we're even talking about this. It's hot so fucking hot.

15:25Luke Moore: You are channeling the spirit of Mark Lawrenson right now. You are. I don't like this on the eve of the world. No, because I'm very happy to be doing this job. Mark Lawrenson hated his job and thought there was an Israeli special forces conspiracy theory that was haunting him everywhere he went. I don't think that. I'm very happy to be here. I'm just saying, it's not Mark Lawrenson-esque, who by the way didn't even represent England, to call this a shambles when it was a shambles. Right. Jim? What did you think of the goal? Nice cross from Jed Spence. There's only one of them. I really like it.

15:59Luke Moore: It looks like it was bought from Argos, which reminds me of how the goals looked. Oh, you mean the actual goal, don't you? No, his chin strap. Yeah, no, it was a lovely 79th England goal for Harry Kane, which is quite something, isn't it? And I thought it was very interesting that Jed Spence played off the left because you get the old inverted cross there. And Tuchel singled him out for praise, actually, didn't say he played very well, which is, I suppose, again, there's some value in that. Jed Spence probably isn't going to start as a left back but Tuchel now knows what to expect from him maybe in this sort of situation Yeah, it could be about O 'Reilly you would imagine but you've spun that there and said the inverted fullback of course in the last Euros everyone was dead against that with Kierke Well, quite, yeah So yeah, we could be in a very interesting situation because there's only one left-footed well, I suppose Dan Byrne might double up I can't really see Dan Byrne bombing up and down the wing I would hate that for Dan Byrne Yeah You're the man in their 30s, don't need that No Byrne by name, Byrne by nature Yeah I mean, I'm reticent to mention the temperature again in front of Luke.

17:00Luke Moore: Because he keeps talking about the weather, doesn't he? It's just hot. I get that it's hot. Can we just talk about San Cal? Yeah, we literally are. But I like the idea that Dan Byrne has got the sort of energy reserves that we might see him as a sort of marauding fullback. I can't imagine it, but I hope that that's the case. But yeah, these games are just strange, aren't they? I don't think you can put too much into it and think too much about it because even if we'd won 4 or 5-0 it would look really convincing again this isn't a team that reflects the team that is actually going to start any of these games or even finish any of these games but Jim on Wednesday's Lions Watch I keep saying Wednesday I think it was Wednesday it doesn't matter last week's Lions Watch we did have a discussion I think one of the viewers or listeners asked what we could get out what England and what we would get out of this game against New Zealand about this game against Costa Rica.

17:54And it was very difficult to answer other than just say, well, if he plays the team that he wants to start the first group game and blitzes both of them and they get right into their stride, I think that will be of value. But other than that, it's really difficult to know what value they can get out of it. And I feel still now that it was almost, I don't even really know what he's trying to do. I don't get, I mean, Marcus, you're very well versed in the old England stuff. Maybe you can tell me. What is he getting out of playing Watkins off the right? What is he getting out of playing Jordan Henderson?

18:26What's he getting out of playing Jarrell Quanta at right back? All these things seem to be quite confusing.

18:33Luke Moore: If I can jump in on the right-sided thing, it's because Pukai Osaka and Nani Madureka are the two options on the right and they weren't available, right? So that's essentially a square peg in a round hole. He has to play someone there, yeah, yeah. And the reason why he's getting everybody to play and run around is this is a so-called competitive game of football. Adam Sorrelick, I'm going to say, these are the conditions. this is what's going to happen everybody get a feel of what may be a problem with pitches with the you know being a state you know I honestly think I feel like pitches should be good they've had years to prepare for it they have had a few years Post Malone was playing it three days before maybe that's the problem that's part of the reason they said the pitch was shit because Post Malone had a gig on it ah they should have gone pre-Malone and they'd have been okay but I think you know I think that that's all it is it is a training exercise so I take your point I think that the concern for some England fans may well be and I get this, is that we've not really seen England play in a way that any of us would want them to play, and certainly Tuchel would want them to play, since all the way back in, was it September, when they beat Serbia 5-0.

19:35Luke Moore: Now, we go back to that result often. That's because it's the best result and the best performance under Tuchel. I understand that there were, you know, Latvia 5-0, and Serbia at home 2-0, but those kind of games, Latvia, pretty poor opposition against Serbia at home. I think they were already done and dusted, or maybe they needed to avoid defeat. It was a certain type of game. Whereas that one against Serbia, slightly better opposition, obviously they'll hopefully play against better opposition in the World Cup. It was a game where you thought, ah, I can see that as a plan. I can see that maybe how they're going to approach games come the World Cup.

20:12Luke Moore: Before that, not so good. The best team they've probably played under Turku, you might argue, was Senegal, who beat them quite handily, 3-1 at the city ground in Nottingham. Seems a long time ago now. So England have not really played in a way or played that much opposition or any opposition, you might argue, which you think, ah, OK, this gives us some sort of little idea and plan. We're sort of clutching at the straw that is that win against Serbia. I mean, the last international break before we just had this one, ahead of the World Cup, was, of course, the game against Uruguay and then the other game against Japan, which was a complete waste of time in terms of playing style and whatnot.

20:46Luke Moore: Because as I said at the time, I think it was a meet and greet. He just wanted to see loads of different players in case there was injuries. Maybe there was one or two names where he wasn't sure. But his squad was picked really at the back end of last year. That's when he felt the group had gelled. He saw something and he thought, this is a good squad. I like this. And that is the bulk of the squad that is in America with him right now. So the concerns, and I think, don't put words in your mouth, Luke, but maybe you're feeling that some other England fans, and I get this totally, is we still don't know quite what the plan is.

21:17Luke Moore: I think that's quite exciting. This might be my World Cup fever talking. Here we go. Because we don't know anything about Thomas Tuchel's England at a tournament, because of course we don't. So we don't know what the level is. Have they got a performance like that 5-0 shellacking of Serbia in them when it counts? Almost certainly not, because tournament football rarely treats you that well. But we don't know, do we? We don't know what they've got in crunch moments and against big names. I think that's fun. I will never know until it starts. And isn't that part of the problem? What you're all talking about here is even these kind of competitive qualifiers against good teams away from home or whatever, and certainly friendlies, it's actually impossible to replicate what's actually going to happen.

22:02And I think international football is unique for that because you don't ever get a chance to really find out what the fibre of the fabric is, you know, until it actually happens. And I think it's probably why the teams that succeed in the international tournaments are doing best at managing the occasions and managing the conditions and it slots in for them and all fits together at the right time. And you don't really know. The amount of times that, you know, there's been teams that have fancied going into tournaments that have done nothing and then teams you don't expect to hear about and they fly.

22:33I mean, I remember France in 2002 had a brilliant team. Obviously, they were running world champions and the rest of it. Bombed out in the group stage. that was a massive surprise at the time that was huge but then you have like Denmark and Euro 92 and no one really talks about who don't even qualify and they go on and win it so I think

22:47Luke Moore: without their best player as well exactly and the conditions are so rarefied that it's difficult so what I'm not saying is oh England look shit and they're going to be terrible in the World Cup I'm not even saying that you want to say a little something well what I'm saying is actually that the way this game was organised the way it was conducted the location it was at the team that was picked and the way it was played is essentially totally meaningless. It's not good or bad. It's just nothing. And so if the Costa Rica one's the same on Wednesday, we'll just be totally in the dark. We'll be totally in the dark about what's going to happen.

23:22Because all the chat about, you know, you make a good point about Maduweke and Saka on the right. Watkins plays are effective because someone has to play there. At least, I guess, you can see some combinations from playing two strikers. You know, if I'm clutching at some other straws, I'd say, well, you know, Scotland have experimented with playing two strikers and they're friendly. you know maybe this is the way things might be going there's no real reason to play Spence at left back when you've got O 'Reilly there who's got no real experience

23:46Luke Moore: I mean O 'Reilly was playing midfield when he came back when he came on he was so maybe there's an experiment there but my point being that I just don't get beyond the fact that these are the conditions and the pitch is shit and the weather is hot so you're all going to get a go I don't really see the point he obviously does though of course he does and that's his job and I'm not saying he shouldn't be doing it I'm just saying that for me it seems pointless from where you're sitting in an air-conditioned office in London. It's nice, isn't it? Not that we need it today, by the way. No, no. 15 degrees outside.

24:13Luke Moore: Well, Tuchel said after the game that in the first half he thought there was too much freestyling. He wasn't happy with how England positioned themselves, thought they had too many shots from range and that he thought the counter-press didn't work, right? So there are clear things he's actually been asking the players to do and perhaps most of the point is about getting those squad players who will come on as substitutes or will feature if someone's injured or suspended or whatnot. It's about getting them all on the same page, right? It's about making sure that they can all play the style and the system.

24:43Luke Moore: Clearly, that isn't quite right yet. So there is surely value in that. Yeah, whatever one of my things, I suspect and hope that this friendly will be forgotten about very, very quickly. And I don't think it's... Oh, it will, because there's going to be a narrative, good or bad, around England in the World Cup, because there always is. And in a year's time, this game will be a fucking pub quiz question. That's all it's going to be. And so will the Costa Rica game. Well, yeah. And the only thing I think people, if it goes badly for England and say they lose to Croatia in their first game and all that, that's when people will say, well, this is the problem, Thomas.

25:16Luke Moore: You know, the international break against Uruguay and Japan, you didn't make anything of that. These other friendlies, it's all been pedestrian, pedestrian. You would think, though, that when the tournament comes, you know, it'd be different focus. These players know a lot of them have played in tournaments before. A lot of them have gone deep in tournaments. So I personally am not worried about that. As I say, from a fan point of view, you want to see just a little something. but that's not what happened the one thing that we did see though that was quite impressive the stadium does have a pirate ship I love that in the stands it looked genuinely impressive like Pirates of the Caribbean yeah I wouldn't be surprised if they actually got that from the Pirates of the Caribbean or something the story the story is mad so Tampa has an annual pirate festival and parade which they've been doing since 1904 love the idea of a parade maybe like flocks boarding each other it pays tribute to a pirate called Jose Gaspar who built a pirate kingdom on the gulf coast of Florida in the 1700s and they celebrate it every year and there's no evidence that he or the pirate kingdom ever actually existed pirate kingdom exactly you'd think we'd know about that right but yeah that's where that comes from so the pirate ship is just in the stadium why would they celebrate that I mean the pirate kingdom is just full of crooks right yeah I mean you're from a kind of pirate heavy part of the world an island nation yeah I'm from an island nation yeah well I'm from the home of the Royal Navy really which is kind of anti-piracy really when it suited them yeah you want to be down the Cornwall I've read the wager you want to be down the Cornwall kind of end of the town for all the pirates for all the pirate coves are we're basically very much the authorities yeah the Narks sea Narks obviously that yeah exactly that stadium is obviously the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Stadium we talked a bit about it on Friday but in some of the screenshots I've seen of Tampa Bay Buccaneers games there are people dressed as pirates on the pirate ship during the game.

27:05That's great. We didn't see that on Saturday.

27:07Luke Moore: No, that's a shame. I'd like to think it would be a ticket option. Yeah. It's like an executive box, but it's a pirate box. You have to come as a pirate. Don't give Evan Tino ideas. Oh dear. Speaking though of prices and whatnot at the World Cup, did you see at the venue, the stadium, that a beer costs$16.75? I did see this. A water costs$8.75. You could also get an ultra premium double cocktail, which I do recommend people who are a little bit dehydrated in that heat get them down because they're only$26.50 so that's£12.56 a pint for a beer cheaper than that London isn't it? well it's not you know I was at Lords on Saturday it was rained off so I went to the pub and I went to a pub in Prune Rose Hill quite a salubrious part of London that was£8.25 a pint which is 50 % more expensive than a pint in Prune Rose Hill that's telling you something that is that really is yeah I mean it's basically just the venues following FIFA's lead right I think things but I mean generally chicken and egg generally it's pretty expensive in American sports I was at the what was the last I was in I watched the Celtics about 18 months ago at TD Garden and had a beer and I want to say I think it was I think it was$15 wow how big was it it was a yard just a pint just a pint mate might not have even been a pint actually I can't remember the point being they generally are quite expensive.

28:32Luke Moore: It was the best damn beer you've ever had. How much is a pint? I was at Emirates on Friday night as well. That was, I want to say that was nine quid for a pint. Really? Does that sound about right? Yeah, but that's not... Maybe like 50? I don't think it's that much. It was definitely five pounds. He wasn't there for football. No, he was there for boys' own. I was. It was definitely five pounds for a Diet Coke. Right. Yeah, so I mean these things are expensive is what I'm saying. Blimey. People are getting ripped off all over the place. Were boys' own good? They were excellent for what they offer.

29:02Luke Moore: I'm going next week to lad zone don't do the fist thing I won't do another thing what's the point of going then? sorry oh dear otherwise that is our ramble watch party of course so one of the things that Thomas Tuchel's done which I think we can agree is a lot more positive is that apparently he's been talking to Fizzer at least yes he has I'm glad you mentioned that he apparently had a 90 minute conversation with Fizzer about weather it was during the game he should be awarded British citizenship for that surely the conversation wrote for 19 minutes because every single time Thomas Tuchel asked himself he said sorry what was the question again yeah he's a very difficult man to pin down Neville added we even talked about traffic in certain cities traffic and weather send us a message use the email or the socials whatever if you could think of a more boring conversation than Thomas Tuchel and Phil Neville talking about traffic it does sound like Thomas Tuchel phoned in Neville's radio show his local radio show doesn't it well there we are Not the strangest thing that's happened to do with England, though.

30:05Luke Moore: Did you see the names on the scoreboard? We're almost all incorrect. I couldn't believe this was real. I thought this was AI. Same. Yeah, you had Ollie Kane apparently playing, Jed Bellingham, Gerald Rashford, and just Harry. Yeah, I love that. Harry. She's Brazilian now. It reminds me of that meme of the old Japanese baseball game where they've... Oh, that's from Imagine American Names. ...just make up loads of American names. and they're like Sleave McDyckel or Ray McSriff and Todd Gonzalez. It's got that same sort of energy to it. It's got the old school pairs energy where they couldn't have the rights to their players.

30:42Sensible World of Soccer as well. Oh, yeah. Very good, very good. The David Platt was David Pratt on that, wasn't he?

30:47Luke Moore: Which I'd be annoyed about if I was David Platt. He was a fine player. Very good player indeed. Could do with him this World Cup. Oh, he could actually. He'd be lovely. It'd be a lovely old job beyond the striker, wouldn't he? Oh, no. Arriving late. Right. So there we are, everybody. Yes, England, we're on our way. We didn't really cover the game because I don't think it did. Genuinely. We couldn't. We didn't cover the game very much on this show today. And I'm happy to go on the record as saying this to all of our listeners and viewers. It just didn't deserve to be covered. Yeah, there's nothing to cover.

31:15Luke Moore: We talked about the goal. Exactly. That was it. Jordan Pickford made the safe. There you go. All right, coming up after this, Stevie Clark's boys are up for the cup.

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33:15Hi, this is Jonathan Fields, host of The Good Life Project. What if your home could welcome you at the door, energize your kitchen, and calm your bedroom all automatically? With Pura's family of smart diffusers, you can scent every space perfectly. Choose premium, clean fragrances, adjust the intensity, and set schedules right from your phone. It's whole home scenting designed for the way you live. Build your Pura system today at Pura.com slash whole home.

33:49I used to get invited to a Sunday lunch. All his family and his wife was there. I was the only one who wasn't part of the family. And he said, pointing at Ghislaine, she is the only person in this room apart from me with any balls. I'll never, ever forget that.

34:00Luke Moore: Do you think Robert Maxwell was evil? He was pushed over. Pushed over by... Mossad.

34:16Luke Moore: I forgot how good the whole clip was. we're so used to just getting that little snippet I want to see a dramatisation of this dinner party yeah the idea that you're having a family Sunday lunch right you can invite one person it's not part of the family just one person no dad's invited someone you don't know who it's going to be it's Mark Lawrenson it's Mark Lawrenson the boss of Oxford United there we are everybody right Bolivia nil Scotland 4 it was very hot it was hot yeah you'd think Bolivia were suited to the conditions Apparently the Scottish can take advantage of the conditions. When they're playing in a proper fucking stadium up in New Jersey where they actually play football, and the pitch is conducive to playing football.

34:57Luke Moore: There we are, you see. Well, Luke, you said last week on this very podcast that everyone else in Scotland's group, Haiti, Brazil, and Morocco, had recorded big scores. Big scores are back. They are. In their pre-World Cup friendlies, they'd all scored four or more, I believe, in particular matches. Well, Scotland, you said Scotland need to respond. They have. They have done. They were actually very good. I thought Bolivia looked pretty poor. They obviously didn't really even come close to qualifying for the World Cup. Don't like it down there, do they? They don't like it down at sea level. Hate it.

35:29Absolutely hate it. But Scotland didn't let that get in the way. I mean, you don't want to take anything away from Scotland because it was a great performance. I mean, they were freeing up after, I think, half an hour. Should have been more. Should have been more. I mean, they were very, very good. Very dominant. Yeah, and you got into a situation where you think, Shea Adams is scoring two goals in the same game for Scotland. He's got a couple. It's got to be our year. It has to be our year. So they did exactly what they needed to do. I'd love to see them go deep in this tournament. I suspect they won't, but I'd like to see them do it.

36:01And it was a very, very good performance. Again, I think after, against a kind of poor Bolivia team. Steve Clarke was kind of really leaning into the idea that he was delighted that no one got injured. So he's still got options. and I actually think one of the things I also said Marcus alongside that stuff you mentioned last week is I said that I thought Haiti looked genuinely quite good against New Zealand and then after that I listened to OTC and John Arnold who was the guest on there was saying that Haiti might actually surprise a few people and I started to fear for Scotland because they play Haiti first and if you get off to a really poor start in a group where you've got Brazil and a good Morocco side could be difficult for them they need to make a statement they did do that It's difficult for me to say because I think it kicks off at 2am our time.

36:47But Haiti v. Scotland might be quite good.

36:49Luke Moore: Yeah, I know. I was annoyed that that was a 2am kickoff here, to be honest with you. But you're right. I think that this is a good... We say about the England game, it doesn't mean anything and so on. But I think for a side like Scotland, who are... They're playing, as you say, Brazil and Morocco are two handy sides. A little bit of confidence and for the likes of Shankland and Adams, the strikers, because you want your strikers to score early, get a good touch of the ball, whack in the back of the net, and get the good feeling there. And obviously McTominay couldn't help himself. He adds to it.

37:21Luke Moore: That's what they would have wanted. No injuries, as you say. I mean, they were going to play Norway in an unofficial training match today, but Norway had to withdraw due to injuries. So I think the mood is good in the Scotland camp, but that game against Haiti is massive. They are fully aware of that. I wonder if you offered Clark and the boys, how would you have liked the games to have gone? Would they have picked Haiti first? I think you have to. I think to me that's really important. What I liked about this game as well, by the way, is that he was able then to make all his substitutions and it just felt like it had a lot more purpose to it and had a lot more kind of application than kind of England did.

38:01That's probably because he needs to though. Yeah, maybe, but it sounds like I'm being hypocritical because I'm slagging off exactly what England did and then Scotland kind of do make all the same, similar amount of changes and all the rest of it but I just thought Scotland made a statement I don't think England did anyway on the Haiti thing you 100 % want to play the worst team first you definitely want to because I don't know

38:23Luke Moore: I think sometimes you want to play the favourites of the group will be Brazil I think you want to play the second best team first so they're not up to speed anyway look they played Haiti first so there's no point in that I think realistically you want to try and get a good win against the you know quote unquote worst team in the group early, build your confidence, and then take that into the harder propositions. England in 2014, tell me how that group went. It went badly. They played Italy and Uruguay, and by the time they got around to playing Costa Rica, it was over. I was intrigued that he did start Shankland, and I wonder who he's going to go for.

38:55Because Shankland's signed for Rangers now, so he has to play every game.

38:59Luke Moore: If Shankland thought to himself, I do want to start games at the World Cup, and he got in touch with Rangers, and he went, can you sign me? Was it Neil McCann the worst example? Neil McCann was brilliant for Hearts. For years? Yeah, everyone was saying, why on earth is he not playing more for Scotland? And I think he signed, I can't remember the finer detail, so forgive me if I'm a little bit wrong, but he signed for Rangers. And of course, I don't think even a ball had been kicked maybe, or it was like, you know when the international break happened sort of quite close to the start of the season?

39:28Luke Moore: And Craig Brown was like, well, no, he's shown that he's really improved and come along, come up a lot, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. He barely played for Rangers and he was straight in the sideline or whatever. so anyway it's happened Shankland's in there I thought it wasn't even I thought he hadn't even made his debut for Scotland at that point I'm pretty sure whatever it was again I'm a bit sloppy with the detail but yes Shankland is in the running but he scored in the first five minutes well exactly perfect for him again exactly what you want from you know if you're not sure who you're going to start and so on and so forth I mean maybe he had I mean to back up your point and look about it was a bit more of a statement maybe he's thinking against Haiti we have to win this game and I think a lot of people People would think that.

40:08Luke Moore: And by the way, Haiti will be thinking exactly the same thing. Of course they will. And so he thinks to himself, right, maybe we might go with two up front. Maybe we might surprise him. Could be an absolute barn burner, this. I think it's an absolutely intriguing game of football. Yeah, but you're going to have to be, it's going to test you. Oh, yeah. 2 a.m. If it's 0-0 at half time and it's approaching 3 in the morning and you've got work the next day. But it's probably better for Scotland because it will be later in the day in America. There you go. Haiti more used to the conditions. But there we are.

40:38Luke Moore: So, I mean, Scotland, yeah, it's all about can they get through the group. That is the big thing. And it's never been easier to get out of the group on paper because you've got 48 teams and now a lot of third-place teams will qualify. There's a round of 32. It's actually quite similar with a different amount of teams to, say, the World Cup in 1990 where you had 24 teams and 16 went through. So an assorted amount of best-placed third-place teams went through. Scotland missed out on that famously because they lost to Costa Rica, who England are playing on Wednesday. Well, it was a Brazil loss, actually, in the last game.

41:09Luke Moore: Was it Muller? Yeah, Muller, I think, scored late on. So, Brazil again in the same group. What can they do? Speaking of Brazil, Hendrik scored the winning goal in a 2-1 victory against Egypt for them. I am intrigued with what Brazil are going to do at this World Cup. They're not among the top four or five favourites for the competition. I think, what are they, six favourites? Some people have got them down. A lot of little narratives with them. I mean, they've not been, so to put in context, people will look at qualifying and will try and squeeze any kind of juice out of that. And people will say, that's a waste of time.

41:46Luke Moore: And others will say, no, but actually it's indicative. Clearly, again, you want your team playing the best football possible for as long as possible. I don't think anyone's going to argue that. However, as we were talking about in the first part there, a team can have an absolute nightmare or be brilliant going into the tournament and it all goes wrong or it all clicks into place. Brazil lost six games in qualifying for this World Cup. To put that in context, in the previous 20 years of World Cup qualifying, they'd lost five games. So it shows you. Carlo Ancelotti, it is a proper call MacGyver type stuff.

42:21Luke Moore: Do you know what I mean? There's a reason why he's in there. They wouldn't want a foreign manager. Not many teams do, of course. But when it's Ancelotti to answer the call, you don't get much better than that. The squad, I think, is pretty good. I think they've got a better squad than maybe some people are giving them credit for. However, maybe a little bit light and disjointed in certain places. What can Ancelotti get out of them? Well, the disjointed thing is interesting because if you look at the fact that Edison's been called up, the Atalanta midfielders, the Cyberman United, a lot of the chat in Brazil is like, well, he was crying out for that because people think that he felt like he had made a mistake by not calling up enough midfield players.

42:58he gets called up because Wesley gets injured who's basically an attacking right back and he replaces him with a central midfield player to shore that up because he didn't choose enough of them in the first place

43:07Luke Moore: I think he maybe breathed a sigh of relief I mean that would be a bit of a crass thing to say but to have another chance but the decline I mean I'm not an expert in Brazilian football at all obviously but I think the decline in Brazil's performances at the very sharp end on the international stage seemed to me to have coincided almost exactly with the increasing earliness that young players seem to be leaving Brazil now. They go and they go and play in Europe and they never really build up a rapport with Brazilian football generally because all they do is come back for international games. They're not there.

43:43It feels like Brazil's almost got an identity problem with what it actually wants to do. I think they have got a better squad than people. If you look at the amount of forwards that he's picked and a lot of them are proper household names. A lot of them, I mean, the list of forward players that Brunel have got in their squad, Vinicius Junior, Mateus Cunha, Neymar, Rafinha, Endrick, Luis Enrique, who I admit,

44:09Luke Moore: Igor Tiago. Yeah, who I admit, I don't know much about. Gabriel Martinelli, Igor Tiago and then Ryan, the young Bournemouth player. It's really, really exciting at the top end. You've got Bruno Gimaraes in there as well and there are some really, really exciting players. I think it's your man at the back, Gabriel. Yeah, of course, yeah. Imagine if they go set-piece heavy. We're fuming back home. I think we might see a bit of that. I actually think there's probably a good chance we'll see a lot of that in the tournament based on, you know, sort of reading around. Of course, yeah, but sort of reading around general sort of kind of profiles of teams.

44:42Luke Moore: A lot of them seem to be playing five at the back or three at the back. You want to look at that, so I wonder if that might be a feature of this World Cup. But anyway, I mean, the last time or the only time since they won it in 2002 that Brazil have been beyond the quarters is when they lost 7-1 in their own backyard. So it's been a long time since they've threatened in any meaningful way. Yeah, it's been a remarkably poor run by their own standards. And again, that is part of the reason why Ancelotti's in there. He is under huge pressure. The beautiful thing about Ancelotti is he never looks like he's under pressure.

45:11Luke Moore: And that, again, is why he's well suited to this job. Is that why he's called Neymar up to the squad? Maybe. To be the pressure sponge. Well, do you know what? It'll be on here. He looked like he was under massive pressure. We had that cigar on those two girls around. Three girls. Three of them, sorry. Yeah, yeah. Don't do the man down. It's a pressure release, that. Well, I mean, Neymar, he had not been picked for Ancelotti for a little while, and then he got into the squad. But Ancelotti said, maybe Neymar will play, maybe not. He's taken him on. He's got an injury, though, hasn't he? He's got a carry of injury, hasn't he?

45:43Luke Moore: Yeah, he has. He's a bit of a kind of wild card. He is a wild card, yeah. He did not play in the friendly against Egypt the other day. I mean, I have an MRI scan on that calf injury today, apparently. so yeah with Ancelotti though I go back to that story that some of the Brazilian players mentioned the other week where I think it was the game against Paraguay in qualifying and they were dreadful in the first half and they come into the dressing room at half time and they're all kind of getting annoyed and Ancelotti went wait a minute guys I'm just going to smoke and I'll be back in a minute and then they sort of had it out a little bit and by the time Ancelotti came out and they were like this guy is like he is in charge when you do that people get annoyed when you smoke in the office because it's not for the look I just like it it is for the look Sorry, I just lied.

46:24Yes, there we go. It's not for the look. He does like it. He sets off all the fire alarms in the building and he says, what were you worried about?

46:31Luke Moore: It's just a herbal one. So again, the reason why I think Brazil will actually have a good World Cup is really the Ancelotti factor. And also they've got a squad of players who have a very experienced squad of players who know the way around the pitch. You know, again, goalkeeper, Alisson's in. As you say, household names, there's a lot of them in there. Oh, Casimiro will be in the midfield. I think Edison may well play a lot more. I don't think you should be calling him Old Casemiro. Old Casemiro. Sounds like a brand of tacos. Well, I mean, Edison, I think it's remarkable, as you say, because it was a late call-up.

47:08Luke Moore: I think he may well play football. He'll definitely play football. I think he'll play more football than a lot of people might think because you need a steady Eddie or a steady Freddy, as it was called for Brazil for a long time, in there. because Casimir, you know, again, his age in that, et cetera, and so on. So it'd be fascinating what they come up with, Brazil. They could go deep in the tournament. Now, gentlemen, we've discussed the weather a lot and on Friday you talked about the oceanic heatwave, El Nino, and how it could cause... It's an El Nino year, everyone. Strap yourselves in. Absolutely, yeah.

47:40Luke Moore: And how it could cause games to be delayed due to dangerous storms. Well, we've already seen in warm-up games before the World Cup begins, some games having to stop due to thunder and lightning. Saudi Arabia versus Puerto Rico in Texas. Yeah, 21 minutes in. That was stopped due to the game. It was delayed for just over two hours. Not at the World Cup watch-along, please. Yes, I did think about that. Otherwise, we'll have to phone TFL and get them to make sure the tubes are running that little bit later. I think they're running 24 hours, the tubes. Are they? I think so. For the World Cup, aren't they?

48:12Luke Moore: For the World Cup parties. The lads don't. No, I've just asked them. They're confused. Well, listen, the Victoria line, which is where the World Cup watch party is on, is definitely 24 hours at the weekend anyway. That's what we want. I think there'll be, I think there's some special dispensation being made. I'm putting pressure on Sadiq Khan right now if he's not already planned it. But we don't want the game delayed for two hours during a World Cup watch party. Although, if you look at it another way, people will get more of their money's worth, won't they? Because they're going to hang around for longer.

48:38Luke Moore: That's why the tickets are more expensive. You could be there a lot longer using the stadium facilities. You could see it, World Cup final, two minutes to go. It's nicely poised, two hour delay. Come on. yeah come on yeah fingers crossed it won't happen but like you say it's an El Nino summer so you've got to suck it up it is it is could it be an Anthony Robinson summer well he'll be gutted about this won't he because he scored that in the warm up game he wants to be scoring that in the World Cup proper doesn't he he does but you know it's a great goal get in your eye and I mean they lost 2-1 to Germany but my goodness if you haven't seen Anthony Robinson's volley the US of A the problem for the US it's a great goal and it's a classic of the genre where the ball comes in from a corner and gets cleared and he smashes it on the full you never get bored of seeing those types of goals and it's lovely because you see the striker or the striker of the balls eyes light up I think I'm having a go at this and they always do because it's quite literally free here if it blazes over the bar you know good on them but the USA's problem is they are not going to be able to be you know obviously I don't know how they're going to measure success because they're not going to win the World Cup but if they want to go deep in their home tournament you know that's fine but their record against European opposition is so poor I don't think they've beaten the European team for like five years or something you cannot go deeper in a World Cup and not do that well luckily they've only got one European side and Turkiah isn't classically Europe is it so maybe that will go for them which part of Turki do you want to play against are you from which side of the box exactly but crucially there will be a stage beyond the group stage and at some point they're going to play a European team aren't they ok well fortunately for them Leonardo's not playing so they're not going to get any elbows to the face this time Tab Ramos mentioned back on the Anthony Robinson volley if you don't mind I wouldn't mind Rory of this parish who is from Scotland I go to Arsenal games with him quite a lot and obviously if the ball drops in that position you always want your player to hit it bang bang apparently there is a saying in Scotland shite bag if you dinny in that situation oh right is that familiar to you from growing up there translation if you don't hit it you're an idiot yeah yeah okay my favourite Scottish or one of my favourite Scottish ones you hear on the football pitch is if you want someone to like play her through like send me Send me.

50:47Luke Moore: Send me is a good one. You used to say that all the time. Yeah, I quite like that one. Shitebag if you didn't. Yeah, it's nice. Give it. All right, everybody. We'll continue a little bit more World Cup chat after the break, but it's confirmed. Jose Mourinho is at Real Madrid.

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52:57Luke Moore: Welcome back to the Football Ramble, everybody. Right, we spoke about Takia and Japan's World Cup send-offs on Friday. Now, before their final game ahead of the World Cup, Paraguay, who hadn't yet travelled to North America, were welcomed onto the pitch with a spectacular fireworks display which covered the entire sky. It was like London on New Year's Eve. It was. It was more intense than that. There was no Captain Tom. No, no. It wasn't the Captain Tom drones. That would have been odd, wouldn't it? It would have been welcomed, but odd. It was odd in London. It would have been more in Congress.

53:27Luke Moore: You're in the impression of him there.

53:31It would have been more in Congress if it was above the Paraguayan sky. A few years ago, when there was a fireworks display on New Year's Eve in London, and a drone display showing Captain Tom on a Zimmer frame, you didn't think that was odd? I didn't say that. You did. You just intimated that you didn't think it was odd. Can we establish whether that was odd or not?

53:50Luke Moore: I think it's far less odd than if it was in the Paraguay send-off party. It'd be confusing in Paraguay. I agree. But it really did cover the whole sky, certainly from within the stadium, when you see the footage of it. It looked absolutely incredible. And then when they started doing a version of You'll Never Walk Alone with Captain Tom on the speaker. Very odd. Very strange. Again, but welcome though. So I'm broadly against fireworks. I think they're pretty thin gruel. I think they're bad for veterans. They're bad for pets. I'm not really a supporter of them generally. But if you are going to do them, do them like this.

54:23Luke Moore: Yeah, I think so. It was magnificent. It was. It made the night time look like day time. And you can't argue for it. But red. I don't think anybody. And they're of course in a group With the US And Australia And Turkia Yeah Intriguing group that It's an intriguing group US versus Australia I like that I know what you mean Is it because You'll be able to understand What the players are saying To each other Maybe it is That is what it is Let's be honest In Jackson Irvine Yeah okay Is he going to be Just always in favour of Is he going to be involved I would think so Okay yeah good The cum dog in the squad again Probably not Not sure Cum dog millionaire I hope so That was one of the highlights Of the last World Cup Suddenly Messi and the cum dog are on the pitch at the same time I haven't done my research into Australia yet I'll have to do that this week I'd forgotten all about him if I'm honest something I hadn't forgotten about was the recent Jack's Encyclopedia Finale oh yeah which I was which I handsomely won of course we've had some correspondence quite a bit of correspondence on this some people suggesting that there's some sort of conspiracy or fix because it was my specialist subject what football what was the final one to get you to clinch it for you was England scored in 2014 World Cup.

55:35Luke Moore: Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Because you and Vish obviously would have no idea. As I showed. Some people are suggesting it's kind of the round was, you know, people around the Speller family Christmas table in 2021 or something. I would have been better at that than the England scored 2014. Me the opposite, actually. I can do you quite a few of those already. Well, I mean, it was COVID, so actually. Oh, yeah, that makes it interesting. Mum, dad. Yeah. Marcus. Yeah. Sister, brother, son. Yeah, very new son at that time. I'd love it if we had the occasional question like that. Well, we do. Andy Brassel, the stadium's on his Instagram page.

56:15Luke Moore: That was good. But I think if you're going to blame anyone, Marcus, surely you would deflect to say, look, Jim, was Jim asking the questions? No, I didn't write the questions. I think blame Luke and Vish for their poor knowledge on a football subject, which was about the World Cup. very happy to blame Vish very happy to blame look I was at Lodz I was at Lodz on a Saturday and Vish didn't even come and see me even though he was there all day that's funny because he came out the stadium to see me did he but anyway I want to bring a couple of comments to the table Prongs on YouTube in response to the final he said the bear and the lion really lost to the clownfish because they decided to hold the final in the ocean

56:56Luke Moore: clownfish yeah I like this one from Opegs who says, when can we expect the Spelgium bus parade? Yeah, it happened in South West London. You're going to double up with the England team, aren't you? Post the World Cup. Probably. Yeah. Yeah, we'll both have a trophy in our hands. At least mine you'll be able to sip out of it though. The fair play trophy for England. So yeah, so all of those who were sad that Luke and Vish lost, then they can all do one. Up yours, the trophy's mine. And I think the Luke Nation are hurting because their man put in two very, very pathetic displays in the finals. I am.

57:26They should be smarting, but they know the Luke Nation will come back stronger. I've been up there all season and when it really counted, I would let everyone down. Well, I'm actually retiring from Jacks again.

57:35Luke Moore: I'm never going to play it again. Is that when we haven't got to see you on a Friday? I'll be there. All right. I'll be there. So anyway, I appreciate everybody engaging with that content, whichever way you thought the final went, but ultimately, it obviously went to me. Now, let's talk about another competition and I am calling it a competition. It's the Real Madrid presidential election and of course, Florentino Perez won it with 65 % of the vote. Were you surprised it was that small, Jim? I was. And the voter turnout was actually quite low, wasn't it, as well? Because they obviously published all that.

58:04Luke Moore: Because they do treat it like a full-on national election, which I love. Or the pageantry of it. They're very good at pageantry, Real Madrid. But yeah, this is fairly spectacular. Obviously, Perez has won. It's the first time they've actually had an election in a long time because he's generally run unopposed. As we all know, that means Jose Mourinho is back in. Don't know if you've seen the latest rumour as well, but there's talk that Pepe will be among the coaching staff. It's about to be a vintage era. That's great. Did you see that Jurgen Klopp was forced to deny that he would have become the next Real Madrid manager if Enrique Raquelme had become the club's next president?

58:40Luke Moore: I did see that. Klopp has been linked for a while with them. By them. It's a weird one, that, because it's a complete antithesis of what Klopp's all about. Yeah, it would not work. So is Red Bull. To that Red Bull job. But him being the Real Madrid manager doesn't seem like a right fit at all, but it kept coming up over and over again. You read about it all the time. It's just because he's a massive name who's had success with a really... And he's not working. Yeah, but who has also had success with a really entertaining brand of football. But that was possible because he was given things he would never be given at Real Madrid.

59:10Luke Moore: You need to have a certain level of leeway. You need to be able to come in and have a bit of time and do all these very un-Real Madrid things. And obviously he doesn't want to do it. And my favourite thing about this is that Enrique Raquelme is quite young and he's not going anywhere. So I think he'll be back for further presidential elections for Real Madrid. Based on the absolute populist nonsense that he's been putting forward. He'll live to about 150. Yeah, fair. But less and less Man City sue him into oblivion over the Erling Haaland stuff. Ah, strange, isn't it? But you'd think Man City would want to keep away from courts at this point.

59:45Luke Moore: Maybe they've got a taste for it. Got a loyalty card. Oh, dearie me. Right. And finally, everybody, for this Football Hour Bowl episode. Did you see this? Do you remember Vladimir Romanov? Of course I do. Yeah, former Mahath's owner, of course. He has, in front of his Moscow mansion, erected a giant busty sphinx. It's about time somebody stepped up and did this. Rich people are mad, aren't they? I wondered if it was an odd to Ann Budge. I don't know. But you know, basically, if you don't know what that means, right, If you think of the Egyptian Sphinx, in all its glory, before it got kind of dilapidated by the sands of time, imagine it in gold, as it was supposed to look like, with a massive pair of tits chucked on it.

1:00:40Luke Moore: Just on the front of a house. On someone's house. It's a big house. You've got to spend your money on something, Jim, and he's got loads of it. Well, apparently so. He said it was built to honour his medieval ancestor, Ivashka of Romanov, who reportedly fought as a knight for the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. What that has to do with the Sphinx, I don't know. But that is the reason for it. Yeah, he also said that he started digging into the past and realised there is nothing better than immortalising the history of those ancestors in the form of a Sphinx. So if you want to get his rationale, Jim, that's why.

1:01:11Luke Moore: Yeah, well, I'm sure when you've got the full set of facts in front of you, there's no other choice. He said it had to be convincingly large and convincingly beautiful. Had to be. Would you say he's tipped both those boxes Marcus haven't seen it? I'd say so. I would as well. There's a really good podcast BBC podcast series called the Tsar of Hearts about Romanoff. It's won a couple of awards this year. It's really good. You should definitely check it out. Well there we are. That's the end of the football ramble. I think you'll agree it was a convincingly large and convincingly beautiful podcast.

1:01:39Luke Moore: It's World Cup week. It's here. Thursday it's going to be here. I'll tell you what. It's great. Only a few more sleeps everybody. I know. And we're there. And we'll be back tomorrow won't we? we will indeed with our World Cup preview show Pete's back from Japan I think I've heard rumours on the grapevine he's actually back from Japan just in time no one knew he was going we don't know when he landed back in we didn't get the Friday night battered sausage message that we normally get so he must have still been in Japan then but he will be back apparently by tomorrow yeah I had a chippy on Friday night just in case what did you go for normal fish and chips yeah fair enough what's the name of the chip shop near your place I was down in Kent actually oh are you okay right oh you were in Broadstairs I was in Broadstairs It's a lovely part of the country.

1:02:17Kennedy's is my local fish and chip shop. Jim, yours?

1:02:19Luke Moore: It's called the Chip-In Fish Bar on Holloway Road. Oh, very good. Shout out to all the fish and chip shop guys everywhere. Doing honest, hard-working stuff. Keep doing what you're doing. Thanks for listening to the Football Ramble, part of the ACAR's Creator Network. We'll be back with PTD tomorrow for our big World Cup preview show. Do not miss it. Thank you, Luke Moore. Thank you. Thank you, Jim. Thank you. And thank you, Vladimir Robonov and his busty sphinct.

1:02:53The Football Ramble is a Stack Production and part of the Acast Creator Network.

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