Mailbag: Could the Club World Cup work one day?

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2:59Luke Moore: Hello everybody, welcome to the Football Ramble Mailbag. Players playing abroad, Marcus Rashford and fixture congestion of the orders of the day. It's Tuesday 24th of June, I'm Marcus Speller. I'm Luke Moore. And I'm Pete Donaldson.

3:22Luke Moore: Well hello one and all, welcome to the Mailbag. Of course, if you want to get involved with this mailbag. It's a sexy mailbag, isn't it? Yes. You can tweet us on X at Football Ramble, message us on Instagram and Blue Sky at Football Ramble. Email us at show at footballramble.com. Patron people, you can get involved on the Discord. And of course, you can leave a comment over on our YouTube channel. No excuses. So many options. I don't think I've done a mailbag with you before, Peter, and that's why I'm feeling more than 50 % sexier. I think you should do, really, because I create priapisms in men.

3:53And those trousers do. Correct. Lovely trail. Have you lost your weight, Peter? Because those trousers look quite loose on you today. No, just general. I used to buy, I bought big last year and now I'm really, really seeing the effect. And are you following Marcus's instructions about having a thigh guy summer? It's not my instructions. It is the thing. You broke the news to us, though. That's true. We are shooting the message on this occasion. Yeah. Have you embraced a thigh guy summer? Not really. I've been wearing almost exclusively trousers. Put your thighs away. No, I can't have a thigh guy summer.

4:21It's a thigh guy mailbag. I can't really get my thighs out. I can only get... Come on. Come on, get your thighs up, Marcus.

4:26Luke Moore: Marcus's got very impressive thighs. Yeah, these are a bit... Look at his thighs, man. Look at them. Yours are pretty good as well. Mine are very slim. You're fine. Yeah. That's how you use them. Now... Yeah. I don't really use them, to be honest. Oh, you're a big liar. Apart from the cycling me lion bike. There we are, you see. Find a use for them. Yeah. Use them more than us, I would say. Yeah. Now, let's start with this email from Christian, who says, there's been a lot of criticism of the Club World Cup for obvious reasons. But I'm curious to know if you guys actually think the tournament itself has a future in the sport in some sort of guise.

4:56Luke Moore: It feels like this specific iteration is wrong, but surely there could be a way of making it work in the future. And as a second part to this question, do we also have to acknowledge that criticism of the competition risks being too Eurocentric? Well, I mean, my, as I've said repeatedly since this Club World Cup started, I'm happy to admit this, my football watching life experience, opinions, whatever you want to call it, are very Eurocentric. I don't watch any club football from outside of Europe. The time difference is punishing. That's part of the reason. And my football watching is probably pretty English-centric, to be honest.

5:35The most football I watch by far is English football. So yeah, of course, you have to take that on the chin and understand that there's different perspectives on it and it could be different levels of importance for different federations and stuff. But the criticism of the Club World Cup, as far as I'm concerned, as far as I understand it, is essentially always viewed through the lens of the calendar, right? The fixture congestion. If there was loads of gaps in the calendar and there was a coherent way of doing this in a way that made it viable for players, viable for fans and their pockets and viable for loads of other things, I think it's a really good idea.

6:12And I think we've enjoyed what we've seen so far. And it's the only chance that competitively teams from different federations, clubs, get to kind of play for something that, you know, in time might actually mean something. So it's cool for that reason. It's the first proper gore as well, you would say. It is. But it's always been, even in the old guys, Pete, as we said on the show yesterday, it's always been important to South American teams, right? My ex-brother-in-law, he's Brazilian. He's a massive Corinthians fan. And I remember he absolutely loves all that stuff. He thinks it's really important.

6:44And I think it's partly because, again, what we said yesterday, this idea that we're so Eurocentric, that these South American teams particularly want to show what they're all about. They want to give European teams a bloody nose. They want to be on the map for once, you know, because the only thing they're on the map for usually in Brazil and Argentina are their international teams, occasionally a bit of Boca and River and one or two others, and then the fact that they lose their players really early on. That's really it. So, of course, it makes sense for them. But going back to the actual question, the tournament itself is a good idea and will be interesting and will continue to be entertained by it.

7:16but it's just the fact that the way it came about is wrong. The entry requirements for some teams. Odd, very odd, aren't they? It's too much. And the fixture congestion for the players and stuff. It's too much. Would it not be more sensible to put it in pre-season and use it as a pre-season tournament and just basically insist that all of the teams that are in there, they're getting paid handsomely for appearing, so they don't need their Malaysian tour, they don't need their Far East tour, and just preclude them from doing that every year.

7:47Luke Moore: The problem though is... So you shift it slightly. Yeah, but the problem is what is pre-season these days? You know what I mean? It never ends. Yeah, exactly. And I think the problem with that is there's no way FIFA are going to accept that because that's going to go into the territory of quote, non-competitive, friendly stuff. And they don't want it to be that. They want it to be competitive. They want it to be an extension of the season. I think they want it to be competitive so that it actually means something and so they can sell it, right? Well, people are playing their way into the affections of new managers and also, to a lesser extent, transfers.

8:18Playing their way into the affections of the new managers,

8:20Luke Moore: a good motivation. And it's a lovely turn of phrase. I think that it's, yeah, the problem is it's too much. And so what do you do? Where's our pre-season? Well, this is it. We're always on. We're just season on. We're always one big season, us. I think that, I mean, before the tournament even bloody started, they were already talking about 48 team club World Cup. And it's just like, come on, you fools. I think 32 is ridiculous. You've got four Brazilian sides. I mean, I understand that they've done it in some sort of, as I say, slightly odd ranking thing. So you can't just say, oh, we're chucking a Peruvian side then and a Chilean side.

9:00Sorry to cut in, but a couple of things, just before you go back on, a couple of things, they've engineered it for Messi to be there and they did their very best to engineer it for Ronaldo to be there. Even by opening up a transfer window specifically for players for the Club World Cup to get Ronaldo in.

9:14Luke Moore: So this is all bollocks. So we used to have, as we say, we mentioned it on yesterday's Ramble, the sort of pre-curse or whatever to the Club World Cup in the year 2000, where you did have some sides from around the world. Manchester United and Real Madrid were both involved. And I think that you could have some sort of tournament like this, but you'd need to whittle it down. I wonder if, sort of off the top of my head, you think, well, how do you qualify for it? Well, you have the Champions League winner and the Europa League winner go into it. And you have that around the federations. Because you have a top tier Champions League, whether it's called a Champions League or not, Copa Leputadores, for example, Asian Champions League, you have that.

9:54Have they got the Sudamericana in the South America as well, which is their Europa League?

9:57Luke Moore: So I know in Africa you've got a second tier, and I'm pretty sure in Asia you do as well. I'm not sure about CONCACAF. But if you don't, then you just, you know, and people might say, oh, yeah, but you only get two teams from, well, yeah, that's what you get. A little cheeky conference. Yeah, but also as well, you're not just stacking it in the big team's favour then because by definition, the Europa League winner is not the champion of that. No, it's Spurs. Yeah, exactly. It would be, all right, yeah, scrap that idea. Spurs are loving this. They're absolutely loving it. No, but you know what I mean?

10:25Luke Moore: You have to do it somehow. So whether you do it or not, whether it is the two finalists of the Champions League, although I think then it gets a bit heavy on the old elite because another thing you don't want to do is just have these competitions and the rich clubs get richer. So I don't know. Maybe that's a shit idea, but just off the top of my head. So say if you had a 24-team tournament or a 16-team tournament, suddenly you kind of go, oh, right, okay. And people might say, yeah, but then you don't get the best teams. Well, come on. You can't do that all the time. We have that with the Champions League in Europe.

10:53Luke Moore: It was always, yeah, but the eighth best team in England or Italy or Spain is probably going to be better than, say, the Hungarian champions, right? But that's not the point. and you can't be a dick about this. And that is when you do get too kind of Eurocentric about it. Because if you have one, you know, Auckland City, by the measures of what they're using, are there on merit, whether you like it or not. So, you know, I think that you could, as I say, have a tournament and slim it down. But unfortunately, those making decisions and all the rest of it, it's more, more, more, more. You like this thing, do you?

11:24Luke Moore: All right, well, we'll release three more films about that. No, it was a standalone thing. Just leave it. But no, it's greed, greed, greed. So that is the problem here. and that's why I don't think it is going to be road back on this Christian. I think it probably will end up a 48 team and there's also then the problem further down the line of who's going to host the bleeding thing. Like we say, what they'll do is in future tournaments they'll tie in with you're hosting the World Cup you've got to host the Club World Cup. And that's okay if it's America or North America. They have the infrastructure and the size and all the rest of it to absorb it while most of the population probably don't know or certainly a significant portion of them.

11:56Luke Moore: But if you get it where you have other countries who are thinking you know okay 48 team World Cup that's a bit of it and we've got to do this tournament as well you will start seeing continental World Cup hosts rather than just one country You'd have to back load it as well because everything builds up to the premier competition which is the World Cup and then do the next Club World Cup rather than before Whereas as I say a slim down tournament of say 16 teams or maybe even 24 if you want to be a bit you know and I think countries could do that so that would be my suggestion and that is also trying to be not Eurocentric because I think teams from around the globe playing each other at club level, I think there is something quite nice to it.

12:34Luke Moore: And if teams don't want to take it seriously, then they'll get beaten by a Brazilian side or a Japanese side. I think what we're saying is, in the right hands, it's a good product. But I think everything that comes along with it these days means all the stuff you guys have said, which I totally agree with, but then it's also going to become a tipping point where you're just not going to be able to do this stuff as much. I kind of thought, I did a panel late last year and part of it was about this Club World Cup because it was around the time when Rodri talked about how players might start to go on strike and all the rest of it.

13:08And I wondered whether there was going to be a kind of sea change around that and it was going to become a bit of momentum and then they were going to talk about maybe not sending the best players to this tournament this summer. It kept productive. Yeah, that's not happened. But at some point you'd think something does have to happen because you can't... I know we're going to talk about it in our next question, which I'll come on to in a minute, but there's only so much you can do. But on the other side of it, you can't unring a bell. So once it's happened, the people who are known for their hubris and their arrogance, like an Infantino, he's never going to entertain the idea of rowing back from 32 down to 16 because that, of course, admits that it didn't quite work.

13:49Luke Moore: Or a lot of clubs would kick off. They'd go, well, hang on a minute. Yeah. Because we would have qualified and all that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Will there be that amount of money on offer next time round? That's the question. Well, I mean, the other thing is... The only reason it kind of got off the ground was because of this fit up with DAZN and then being back by the Saudis. A billion dollars comes in last minute. I mean, yeah, so who knows? But from Christian's email, I do understand that there's a bit of a point in his second part of his question. It's a loaded question, isn't it? Criticism of the competition, risk being Eurocentric.

14:19I think that's probably quite fair. But we've acknowledged that and we understand that our point of view is very much based on our own experiences. but there's a product in there somewhere.

14:28Luke Moore: Yes. It's just a bit of a shit show at the moment. Anyway, Jake, hello to you. Jake's emailed in saying, do you think we could see the introduction of player minute caps to help combat fixture congestion? He says, there's so much talk in the world of football punditry about how the schedule is unsustainable, how it's increasing player injury rates, shortening their careers, etc. Rather than trying and never to be failing to reduce the fixture list, whatever player minute cap has introduced for players in the top European leagues and even the Champions or Europa leagues. For example, no player could play more than 3 ,000 minutes in a Premier League season.

15:01That's approximately 33 matches. European competitions could be a little tricky to navigate, but it's no doubt doable. What do you guys think? I like it. It's like a car, like getting your MOT every year and you get your miles written down. Could you have a little ticker?

15:15Luke Moore: Yeah. So there's a certain player, you know, they're needing a goal at all, but, you know, Harlan's only got five more minutes left before he has to be subbed off. That's a lovely little bit of work. I don't mind that at all. And each player could be kind of graded very much like different cars. Because, you know, like, Toyotas last forever. Jaguars die immediately. That's James Milner. Yeah, exactly. You can use in the desert as well. Exactly. Jaguars are Luke Shaw. Yeah. Yes, exactly. So Luke Shaw's got a wet belt. And I'm trying to think of someone who's played like a lot of minutes. James Milner.

15:50Yeah, James Milner's got a chin. Timing chin for his car. So, yeah. That clears that up. Helpful, aren't it? This is a really interesting question. I like it. I came at this from a point of view where I said that if we can't... Because what's really fascinating about modern football is we first saw it with the financial angle where we were always saying for years on this show and elsewhere, this financial model is going to mean so many clubs are going to go to the wall. Yeah. And Miguel Delaney was saying on the piece I saw you shared the other day that 500 clubs around Europe are facing a bankruptcy, right?

16:22Luke Moore: He thinks there's a genuine possibility that hundreds of clubs could do it. Look at Brescia in Italy. Yeah, but I'm not saying that Miguel's wrong, but what I am saying is, somehow, football continues to trundle on, even though we've been saying this for a long time, right? And now, with the player miniatures and the load the players are under, it's kind of the same thing, yet football seems to keep finding a way of carrying on. And I came to this miniatures thing from a different angle a few months ago, where I said, I think what you could see is if a player, say Trent Alexander-Arnold or whatever goes to Real Madrid big name player goes from one big club to another big club is it beyond the realms of possibility that in the future if that kind of move happens a player says I'm only going to be available for 40 games a season because I care about my own well-being and the length of your contract yeah and all these other players come and go I'm going to do that as well because obviously the players do have a union in this country but obviously it's the easiest union in the world to run because they're also wealthy they don't tend to use it that much but they could do on this minute-ish thing but if you've got a top down solution where you said as Jake is suggesting you can play X amount of minutes in the Premier League X amount of minutes in competition in Europe X amount in the Cups that becomes quite tactically interesting because then you've got as you guys have already said you know are you going to save him for the Cup final or are you going to save him for the Champions League final or are you going to save him for this that's quite interesting but if it's a player kind of driven situation the fans will just get on their fucking back will you give us more minutes but not if every player does it yeah but I think it would have to be a league thing which I don't think would happen because why would the Premier League do that when they're thinking why are we capping minutes of our best players so it would have to be registration wouldn't it your player registration yeah but let's just say that for some reason this is introduced ultimately the trouble is everything favours the big clubs now what would happen is they would then stockpile players even more.

18:22Luke Moore: So those with the bigger budgets would say, all right, we're just going to have to sign a load more players and they would hoover up even more of the talent. That doesn't always work though, does it? And you can limit the squad size, doesn't it? So if you squad size it, fine. But to put a positive spin on it, what would be interesting is a lot of young players would get more of a chance. You'd have to invest in more youth as well. So you say that if you're under 21 you can play as many minutes as you want? Yeah, if you're an academy player, something like that. So it would be an enormous effort.

18:47Luke Moore: but it would be a very holistic approach, this. You couldn't just simply go write players cap minutes. I think you would have to try and give incentives to clubs as well because you're not just saying you sign that player and you get less of him. You have to give them something. And so if you are investing in youth, if you are bringing players forward, but again, of course, those were the bigger budgets and those are the big academies, we'll still kind of sail on happily through the night. But do you not think, you know, we're sort of wasting your minutes, you're giving unlimited minutes. I know we're just sort of inventing this new thing, but giving unlimited minute-age pre-21 just means that where you make most of your money 28-29 you're not going to get there because of all of those minutes that you've used up before that time yeah I'm not sure the other thing I wondered with this was if you I know this sounds abhorrent and we've talked about it in the context of Manchester United in the year 2000 I just wonder if you've qualified for European competition and maybe if the Club World Cup's there or you qualify for that or whatever, then you're not included in, say, the League Cup.

19:51I think they're going to tank. At some point, the League Cup's going to tank. They're going to have to do it.

19:54Luke Moore: And so some people say you should get rid of it. I actually think that if you're not in any of these other competitions, so say if you removed, what would it be, four teams? Yeah, but technically it's not the same. It's not the League Cup then, though, is it? It isn't the League Cup, but it's still a cup and you'd still have Premier League sides in it. And people might go, well, you only won that cup because Man City, Liverpool and Arsenal and, I don't know, Chelsea weren't in it. that's the prestige that the League Cup's kind of in anyway doesn't it I wouldn't give a damn you'd soon start celebrating it because you beat Aston Villa or Forest or dare I say Fulham or Brighton or whatever at a big Wembley final so I think taking the cup competitions away again that usually screws over the smaller sides the problem with the League Cup as an example getting a little bit off topic here but just if you look at the list of teams that have won it recently take Newcastle out of it it's all the big teams it is all the big teams but that's the point I'm saying I'm not saying Newcastle aren't a big team by the way no I mean that was one surprise for a while of course since Swansea probably just for me with the League Cup as I say if you took out the four teams who are going to be in the club World Cup or going to play in European or whatever it is then I don't know I think that there's maybe something there but the trouble is it gets so fiddly is where do you do it and maybe something like players and their agents going right this is what we're going to offer do you want me or not it may well come down to what Jake said they couldn't sort of single-legged semi-vinyl the AFL Cup so I do think there's something in the the idea that players because really it's the players that are affected by this the people who are bearing the brunt of this are the players right so the last thing they want we all know the last thing they want to do after a big long Premier League season is fuck off on a post-season tour to Asia or the US and to an extent this Club World Cup although it is a new type thing so maybe that will become more interesting in time but they are basically run into the ground.

21:44And Andy makes a really compelling argument. I heard him on, it might have been on TransEurope Express a while back, talking about how, in his view of watching so much European football over here, is the quality of it now is far lower. And he thinks it's because of these players' loads. They need to get together, these players. And they need to be able to rally round, band together in a way they're not quite used to doing. Because I'll tell you what, players in NBA do it all the time. NHL, they have lockouts, stuff like that. They need to do that and say, this is what we want to happen. We're the most important thing at this.

22:14We're the people responsible for delivering this product effectively. And whatever shape it takes, whether they don't go into certain competitions or they only play a certain amount of minutes, that to me feels like the way it's going. But I just want to reiterate before we break that we've predicted this financially. We've predicted this with the amount of games for years and nothing's ever really happened. So I wouldn't be surprised if it does just rumble on. It's Sprite and T. They've released a new Sprite with T in it. And you're like, we didn't need it. No one's asked for it. No one's asked for it.

22:41It is horrible. Yeah, exactly. It's Sprite, but tea. Sprite and tea together.

22:47Luke Moore: Incredibly unnecessary. All right, let's have a quick break, and after which we'll answer more of your questions. This episode of the Football Ramble is sponsored by BetterHelp. If you've thought about trying therapy with our long-term partner, BetterHelp, insurance options may now be available nationwide, with an average co-pay for eligible members of just$23 per session. October the 10th is World Mental Health Day, and while we ourselves might know this, our mental health isn't always paying attention to the calendar. Anxiety, stress and personal issues don't wait around for the big day. So taking care of our mental health is a regular part of life and that includes everyday life.

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23:54That's betterhelp.com slash ramble.

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25:41I've got a message from Someday You Will Find Me on X. What do you think will be the next move for Rashford and Sancho? So now it's been confirmed by Amorim that he has basically kicked them both out. I mean, will they be able to restart their careers anywhere else? I mean, that's the question.

25:59Luke Moore: Yeah. It's tricky. I mean, Marcus Rashford, he's... Probably got a bit more in the... What is he, contract to 2028, I think. Right. I mean, he said he wants to play at Barcelona with Laminya Mal. Yeah, I don't think you get to choose that. I'd quite like that. I'd be horrifically embarrassed. You didn't plan the Euro 2021 final, though, to be fair. He's probably got a little bit more credential than you have. That's true enough, yeah. Sancho is, I think, one year left on his contract. So we could see him knocking around a bomb squad at Manchester United for you, which would be a great shot and would serve nobody.

26:33Another low move they can do to sort the financials out.

26:36Luke Moore: Yeah, because you'd rather someone else pay even 25 % of his wages than just have him doing nothing. But the financial part of this is the biggest part of it, as ever, with these players. I mean, Rashford's deal's massive. Sancho, they had to move heaven enough to get him and it rumbled on for a long old time and his deal's massive as well. And it's always about landing spots for these types of players at top-sized, financial, financially muscly kind of Premier League teams. But here's what has to happen. If Amorim is going to put any mark or leave any mark on Mayanata whatsoever, he absolutely has a very basic requirement, needs to be backed to do what he wants to do with the players he does want and do what he wants to do with the players he doesn't want.

27:17Obviously, in cooperation with the hierarchy and the football directors and stuff like that. And if he's decided that Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho are surplus to requirements, along with the fact that he's left Anthony and Garnaccio out of the pre-season tour, apparently, next month as well, he just has to be backed. And the reason for that is not because I rate Amory him or don't rate him. It's completely beside the point. If you're going to hire a manager or a top coach in that hierarchy, he needs to be able to make football decisions and so if you don't back him you're nowhere anyway you're never going to get cracking you're never going to get moved forward if people like technical directors or football directors are going to say to him or put pressure on him to say we can't move him on he has to be part of your squad he's just been Amarim's been totally undermined from the very start and then from Sancho and Rashford's point of view and this is this is a very optimistic way of looking at it a very ambitious thing to demand of these two players who by rights really are deserving of that money because they've negotiated that deal in good faith and their agent's done their bit for them.

28:18And at that point, they signed those deals that were worth that money. They have to sit down and say, right, what's important to me?

28:26Luke Moore: Yeah, and what we're doing here. Is it important to me to earn as much money as I can in a short career and sort myself and my family out for life? I would not begrudge them that whatsoever because the deal was the deal at the time. Or is it important to me to draw a line, find out what my market value is worth at this point of course get the very best deal I can but go somewhere I'm going to play and in Rashford's case who knows but it's probably not going to be Barcelona but you'd actually I don't know again you'd prolong it though wouldn't you because if Rashford say just sat around did nothing for the next couple of years no one's really going to take a punt on him and that's probably the end of that you don't want to do say like what Wayne Bridge did and that was the end of your career or more spectacular Winston Bahada blimey but even someone like Gareth Bale everyone was just going oh come on man I understand this kind of thing.

29:13Luke Moore: And one sentence, I don't begrudge you, but we want to see you strut your stuff. And, you know... I don't understand why... Do you know what? Sorry to cut in. I know the point you're making, but I don't understand. And maybe this does happen and we just don't hear about it. Or maybe there's an obvious reason that I'm missing. But I don't understand why, in Jaden Sancho's case, he's got a year left, he said, right? I don't understand why he doesn't just... I mean, you can have a meeting with the hierarchy at May or Not and your agent and sit down with him and say, you want me gone. Yes. The manager doesn't want me.

29:40I want to play somewhere so what's the best deal we can do for everyone so I can move and I know I'm going to have to give a bit and you give a bit as well but what can we do here that doesn't seem to happen as often as it should in film it's been happening since Paul Pogba hasn't it really that kind of like we can't find this player is just too big to fail and he's failed so what do we do we just bomb him out government's bailed him out again government bail out don't we it's a shame we need Oleg Lusanne who will just play our power let anyone do whatever they want.

30:10Luke Moore: The thing is that with Sancho, you're right. I mean, Sancho, he'll be off soon and I mean, just getting back to Dortmund, that seems where he's happy. But with Rashford though. But they might have moved on for all we know. Well, maybe. But with Rashford though, Rashford is, they never signed him. So whatever they make on him, you know, you can argue he's just pure profit and so on because he's got big wages. But I wonder if there's a fair few clubs, probably Premier League clubs, who are looking at that situation and thinking, the longer it goes towards the end of the window the more desperate Man United will become and the reason is if you're going to back Amram you've got to back him and Amram has been pretty clear about Marcus Rashford and Rashford's been pretty explicit as well thinking my time here is done it seems inconceivable that he'll be playing the next season it's a heavy shadow isn't it yeah although like who knows but it does seem that if you are a Premier League side who are thinking do you know what Marcus Rashford would be a hell of a signing for us and whether it is a more sort of upper mid-table side, like Brighton, say, or something, or even, say, Nottingham Forest, you think to yourself, well, actually, how far?

31:16Luke Moore: And that's on Rashford then. Rashford's clearly aiming high. But if you're getting towards the end of the window and nothing has happened, it's a game of poker, this. Yeah. Then you kind of think, right, okay, we'll give you 30 million for him. That's pure profit in one hand. His wages are off the books. What are we doing here? And then it tests Rashford's resolve. So I think we're going to see this over the summer with Rashford. People thinking, hang on, let's just wait. Let's just see. because are Barcelona going to come in for him? I think that's rather fanciful. And that's a really interesting point because the teams you mentioned there, Brighton Forest and Barcelona.

31:45Luke Moore: I might even chuck in Fulham there as well. Sure, fine. But the problem is that Rashford is in between a rock and a hard place because he's commanding a wage which is nowhere near what he's going to get anywhere else and even the better Premier League teams are Nottingham Forest and Aston Villa as we've seen, he doesn't get in the team. He probably doesn't get, He probably doesn't start at Forest. But even if he does, they're not going to pay that money. No way. It's too much. So he's on first name on the team sheet, star player money, but he's not at that level. Exactly. And he hasn't been for some time.

32:17So he goes back to the Sancho example I used. Totally. He needs to decide what's important to him.

32:21Luke Moore: Well, I've said this a number of times. It's like when people say, oh, but these are my wages. It's like your wages that you negotiated with that club that has that money at that time. Exactly. It's not like... It's why Dancer's never left the Ramble. Correct. I don't know. Totally aren't giving him this money. I'm giving winks all over the place. What were we thinking? Dave Cartlidge comes and he's not on Donaldson money. No way. No way. And you can tell the way he dresses. That is very rich, doesn't you? And that's very harsh on David. He dresses very well. But in five years time he might be, because he's earned it.

32:52Luke Moore: Yeah, yeah. It might just be two years time. But all bollocks aside, you're right. And I think that really it's a case of, do you manage to play an absolute blinder, which obviously he's trying to do, or you bugger off to Saudi. That is it. So the question, yeah, exactly. That's another thing. That's the specter at the feast, isn't it? The question from Someday You Will Find Me is will either of them be able to restart their careers anywhere? The answer is, depends what's important to them. Depends what they want to do. Depends what they're in this for. Totally, yeah. I couldn't agree more. I think we're going to go round and round with Rashford and Sancho.

33:24Luke Moore: But like I say, I think throughout the summer, it may well be a game of poker. And if Fulham win it in the end, I'll be loving it. I mean, he would light up Craven Cottage if he wanted it. Yeah, he would. Come to us, Marcus. It'd be great. Always love to have a Marcus in there as well. As I've proved. From Dom on X. What is a player slash club combination that never happened in real life but feels like they'd be a perfect match for each other? I like that. For example, Hyunmin's song at Liverpool would have worked wonders. I kind of get that. Or a 35-year-old Lewandowski at Man United. It wouldn't work wonders for old Robert.

33:55Luke Moore: So a player club combination that never happened but feels like it would have been a perfect match. Yeah. Like Vinnie Jones and Sean Dyches Burnley. I always had real high hopes back in the day that either or preferably both Rivaldo and or the original Ronaldo would come to the Premier League and I kind of felt like I know what you mean Rivaldo at that May United side because Rivaldo's at Barcelona 97-02 right that is pure Ferguson United where does he fit in the system I don't care about that I do well you can answer for yourself later I'm just saying when he left Barcelona he went to Milan and was only there for a season.

34:33Ronaldinho, Rivaldo and Ronaldo were the three, really. Yeah, yeah. And none of them played in the Premier League. I know. And I think we saw Ronaldinho do that amazing thing against Chelsea in the Champions League. Yeah. Rivaldo was just so good. Ronaldo doing his Real Madrid hatchery against United at Old Trafford. We only ever saw cameos of those players. And the very, very top clubs in the Premier League at the time, which is basically Man Utd and Arsenal, you'd have loved to have seen one of them at least be there. And it never quite happened. And it did feel like, and Marcus, because your memory about this stuff will be better than mine.

35:02But it felt to me at the time they were linked quite regularly, but it never quite happened, which is a shame.

35:07Luke Moore: Well, Ronaldinho, the famous one, was Manchester United, wasn't it? And the report suggested that he wanted his access to a helicopter so he could fly down to London to party and all this sort of stuff. Give him it. Whether that's true or not. Give him the helicopter to the end of the season. See if he abuses it or not. It sounds quite outlandish, so therefore it is probably true. But he never came to the Premier League. And then Ronaldo, the original Ronaldo said that like, at one point he said he was in love with the Man Utd fans because they gave him this stand and novation after he scored his hat-trick against him.

35:38And it just felt like it never quite clicked. But I also, I mean, Dom's example of Lewandowski at Man Utd, we kind of did see a version of that because we saw Zlatan come to United. We did, yeah. Which I really loved. I always wanted Zlatan to be in the Premier League and I'm pleased that he came in, even at the age he was, and still did really well.

35:57Luke Moore: Yeah. Mark Van Bommel at Rangers. Grade A Rangers, man. Jose Mourinho managing him Baggio in the Premier League do you know what I thought Baggio either one Peter let me tickle your testes with this playing for Newcastle United because we saw him in the black and white of Juventus yeah well he was feeding Alan Shearer or Les Ferdinand either John Hall or somebody high up the club put a Baggio branded Newcastle United shirt in the back of their presumably very expensive car in the car park at Newcastle just to taunt some early chairman trolling from the castle United Bosses you know you said either Baggio don't be disrespectful to Dino Baggio did spend some time on loan at Blackburn Rovers did he now right okay must have missed that one everyone did by the way the reason why I asked you about where would he fit in the system because I think that's what Dom1X was saying because at Son at Liverpool it would have worked wonders he's thinking about Son playing off the left presumably yeah no I get it I get it I just don't care about that so therefore well let's bring let's pretend we care about that.

37:00Okay, where would Rivaldo fit in that May United team? No, no, no, no, allow me.

37:03Luke Moore: Okay. Jan Koller at David Moyes' Man United. Oh. You remember they were crossing it loads. Putting Fellaini's nose right out of joint. Get them all in there. Yeah. Two towers. Come on. Yeah, it would be amazing. It would be just, boom, there you go. Where would Rivaldo fit in that classic May United team? Mm-hmm. Rip it up. Yeah. Build a team around Rivaldo. Well, do you know what, actually, he probably would fit in because it would be a 4-4-2 and he'd be off the striker. Yeah, lovely stuff. You've answered your own question. Yeah, I've answered it. I've bailed you out there. Thanks very much.

37:33Appreciate it.

37:34Luke Moore: All right, let's have a quick break and more of your questions after this.

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39:52All right, welcome back. And we've got another question here, this time from Nathan. He says, I've just sadly seen that Andy Carroll's very enjoyable time at Bordeaux is finally coming to an end after a series of incredibly fun appearances in the French fourth tier. All the while, Jesse Lingard is seemingly having the time of his life in South Korea, although he's had a bit of controversy, hasn't he? Got slagged off, didn't he, at the start? At the start, he's turned it round. Of course he has. J-Lings. And third tier UAE side Precision FC are boasting Matt Loughton, Harry Arter and Ravel Morrison.

40:21I just saw a really interesting interview with Ravel Morrison the other day about how he's, I mean, I don't know if it's true, but how he says that he's much more mature now and he gets criticised for things he did when he was a young man, blah, blah, blah. But anyway, he's still playing in the UAE, as Nathan rightly says. So Nathan says, my question is, what is the most fun spell a British, brackets, or Irish, or Jamaican, player has had abroad and by all means go through the annals of history for this? Straight away, Marcus, I'm throwing over to you and I'm suggesting, I'm trying to both of you, Paul Gascon at Lazio.

40:53Yes, that was enjoyable. But we got to see a lot more of him than we would usually do because of Football Italia. Exactly. Throttling that ostrich that time. He did throttle an ostrich. He also, didn't he deliver European football to Lazio for the first time in 20 years? Okay, yeah, nice. Was it that? I think so. Blimey, okay. Yeah, and he had a lovely old time and the thing is with the Gascon situation is that you feel a bit wary about lording up all the stories because he cleared out a lot of his own personal problems, didn't he? And, but, I mean, he seemed, from what I could make out from watching Channel 4 on a Sunday on my sofa at home, he seemed to be having a brilliant time.

41:31He seemed to do quite a lot of TV spots. Didn't learn a lick of Italian. Really didn't learn that much English. That's a good point, actually. You've got to have Gazra at Lazio.

41:40Luke Moore: You do, but I think there is a correct answer to this, and I think it's Bradley Wright Phillips at New York Red Bulls. I mean, his individual awards is listed on Wikipedia. PFA Team of the Year in League One in 2010-2011. And then he moves to the US. MLS Golden Boot for a couple of years, 2014-16. I think he's Red Bull's all-time top scorer as well. Yeah, MLS Best 11, 2014-16. MLS All-Star, 2014-2018. MLS 100 goals. Top MLS player in 2014. Yeah, New York Red Bull's MVP for three seasons. Conquer Calf, Best 11 in 2018 as well. MLS Comeback Player of the Year 2020. just a fabulous player out there he had such an amazing time Tommy Amiobi speaking of let's move on from that shall we I don't want to move on from that because I want you to guys to know that when I told you guys the story about coach coach coach whoo Bradley Rutgers was playing in that game against DC United he earned his US green card following the 2016 MLS season give him a card you're off that's green you can come in Tommy Amiobi is now a solicitor in Canada Marcus, come on Can you beat that?

42:48Can't criticise that Can you beat that? Nobody can beat that What lord does he specialise in or is it the same as US where he did all sorts? Football lord I would say somebody who speaks quite beautifully about the expat experience out in Japan is Jay Bothroyd Oh yeah Who went out to Jubilowata 54 games 34 goals Oh go on Lovely stuff For Jay Bothroyd He's got that many goals Yeah Absolutely huge And he Then he went to Sapporo, which is a very cold part of Japan. 107 matches, 35 goals. He had a lovely time at that. And he spoke about you earn a certain amount of money. It is not an astonishing amount.

43:27I think Pity Yataka was, I think, J-League 1's top earner. And I think he was on like a million pounds a year or something, which isn't the king's ransom in the world of football, but still very good. he basically said you've got to remember that just the level of how your family is catered for in certain countries is a lot better so you may not be earning that much money but the living standard is very high in Japan compared to everything else and I think he had a really good time I think he just missed the rest of his family so he came back so he went to Thailand to play yeah and I guess at that point people are like oh that's that career done then but then he somehow gets Jubilee Wato back up to the top division in Japan with 20 goals in the league and then moves somewhere else and plays in Japan for another seven seasons.

44:13Why not?

44:14Luke Moore: Absolute time. That is a lovely old job, that, I think. I think we can... I mean, you said earlier that Japan's... You talked about Red Diamonds yesterday, weren't you, about how the league standard is very poor. Is it fair to say that Jay Bothroyd can score goals in the Jay League top flight until the age of 39? Yeah. Without being disrespectful to Jay, probably tells its own story. Yeah, well, I mean, Pity Otaka, absolutely knocking them in for fun. 41 in J3, I think, for Tachigi City. He just scored at the weekend, last weekend. But he's taken in, he's scored like, he was on Kyoto Sanger, 109 matches, 52 goals.

44:53Venfra Kofu, my favourite team. Yeah, just absolutely knocking them for absolute fun. Love it. And also, Bothwell had quite an interesting career because he went to Perugia very early on as well, didn't he? Oh, he did, yeah. Yeah, start of his career. Broke to Coventry and then went to Perugia. How about that? Nice to travel. It's nice to travel.

45:10Luke Moore: What about Gareth Bale at Real Madrid? I think he's had a pretty good time. I think he's enjoyed it. He's feathered his nest. Ironically, he didn't actually have that good a time, did he, personally? I think he was fine with it, wasn't he? Yeah. I'll pick up a few Champions Leagues, and then I'll get off to the golf course. Score a load of worldies, and then when people think I've done, pull out a rabbit in a hat every now and then, and then I just won't play. A friend of the Ramble, Rupert Fryer, interviewed Gareth Bale around that time, and said all he wanted to do was talk about goal. Didn't answer any questions about goal.

45:37Luke Moore: Do you know what was quite an enjoyable spell for a very famous Englishman abroad? Was David Beckham at AC Milan. I know it ended with the injury to his Achilles. But there's some lovely highlights because he scored a beautiful free kick. Looked great in the kit. Oh, the kit. Just pinging the balls around with Ronaldinho getting on the end of them and stuff. That was very enjoyable. A couple of loan spells back at PSG out of the... Yeah, he finished at PSG. Was it one? No, that was a transfer. It wasn't a loan. Oh, was it? He was done with MLS. Were the Milan ones a loan? They were, weren't they?

46:04question. The final question comes from Prescott on Blue Sky. What food item in America gave Kylian Mbappe intestinal distress? Could be anything.

46:15Luke Moore: Could your father answer this question? He's just had intestinal distress, hasn't he? Yeah, I mean, the distress was that the intestine popped out of the muscle wall. Ah, that's not good. So I think it's like they've cut out their own distress there in many ways, one would suggest. I do find going to the States, it's a rather, for a tourist, it's a very gluttonous experience. 100%. Really, really tough to eat well there. Yeah, and I'm amazed that so many of them stay slim and sexy. But, I mean, I'm a salad dodger, as you know. I come back home after... Craving it, do you? And I'm just like, give me a lettuce.

46:44Luke Moore: Give me a lettuce. Yeah, just eat it like an apple. And, Pete, it could be one of those sour sweets that you like. The sweethearts. I mean, the sweetheart ones are very... They could be gassy. They're basically just Pepto-Bismol in cube form or circular form. I'm pretty sure Mbappé had gastroenteritis anyway in the end, which I think is just one of those things. I think it's not the same as food poisoning, is it? Oh, I don't know. I think you just catch it virally, don't you? That's a shame, isn't it? Never caught that in France or Spain, did he? He probably has done. Yeah, probably. He probably has done, yeah.

47:13Yeah, it's an awful thing.

47:15Luke Moore: Good luck, Cillian. But mind the sweets that Pete just said. Yeah. They'll set you back a week. Thank you very much for listening to the Football Ramble Mailbag, part of the Eggcast Creator Network. I'll be back with Jim and Pete tomorrow for more Ramble goodness. Please do send your responses, opinions and questions for next week's mailbag and subscribe on YouTube or wherever you get your pods. See you tomorrow, everybody.

47:43The Football Ramble is a Stack Production and part of the ACAST Creator Network.

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