2025 Premier League Year in Review: Men in Blazers 12/22/25

24:32That is modern football in every regard. It's time for theme the fourth, the rising floor. This is a beautiful one. This has been a Premier League of chaos. But a lot of that chaos is that there is a new snarling Premier League middle class. And it is broad. Aston Villa and Newcastle started it. Crystal Palace, Bournemouth, beautiful Brighton have added to it. The idea of the big six is definitely a throwback notion at this point. I don't know what the new shape you would call it, if it's colossal or if it's monumental, if you were going to give an adjective, what the number is, Ruhr. Is it now nine?

25:11Is it ten? Is it eleven? Is it everybody apart from the newly promoted teams in Everton? But then where do you factor in Sunderland? Does Sunderland look pretty good? I think Sunderland will struggle a little bit over the next month just after their team leaves for the Africa Cup of Nations. But I think you could look at certainly ten. There's half the Premier League that has designs on finishing in a European place. Realistic designs, not kind of aspirational dreams of getting into Europe. They are thinking we could be in Europe and that's Palace, that's Bournemouth and Brighton. It's maybe not Everton just yet, but it's not far away from being Everton.

25:42It doesn't take much for Everton to get to that position. It's a positive and a negative thing. So the positive is really obvious that this mixture of money that's come into the Premier League, intelligent use of it from most teams because you've got some really smart clubs in there the B teams, the B core teams as I think of them Brentford, Brighton, Bournemouth they're the best example and Beverton one day Beverton they use the money that they have incredibly intelligently and they have been able to kind of harness that to get a competitive edge which has closed the financial gap on the traditional big six but you also have and this is not popular you've had a few years of financial control which has capped the ability of the richest teams to spend their weight, which has allowed the floor of the Premier League to rise up at a faster rate than the ceiling has risen.

26:32That's basically what we're seeing. So you get this really compressed table. And I think that, without question, is good for the league. It's the Premier League living up to its marketing spiel. It's always been the league where anyone can beat anyone. That's how it thinks of itself. I think it's only the last couple of years it's really been true. It does feel like the difference between competing on the cusp of Europe and having to do a rearguard action against the anals of relegation does seem to be the ownership of a good, reliable, consistently clinical striker. And Igor Tiago, Mateta, Welbeck, they seem to be the difference maker in this new modern family.

27:08Because all the games are so finely balanced. There's such small gaps between the teams that I guess what it boils down to is who takes the chances in any given game. And there is a flip side to that. And I've said this before, I think, multiple times on the podcast. I'm not sure if we're reacting to results right. I think if you look at Spurs, to use Spurs as an example, they've got fewer points at this stage in the season than they have had for 20 years or something. That's bad. Bad Spurs. Bad Thomas Frank. Isn't it terrible? But they're also six points off fourth, which isn't really that many after 16 games.

27:42It's an unlucky rebound. It's one bad performance. it's an injury to James Madison. By the way, the Spurs story, people were losing their minds when Spurs were still like fourth and fifth. I mean, this began early. So don't try and force this agenda upon us because two things cannot be true. And we come to football to just live out our worst fears ultimately, to either experience glory, the cusp of a wave, or we just want to, just let us hate, Roar. Don't give us rationale. We just want to hate. I would say that Thomas Frank's Spurs are a pretty standard Premier League team at the moment. They lose one, they win one.

28:15They lose one, they win one. They lose one, they win one. They're having the same season as Manchester United and Liverpool and Crystal Palace. And the difference at Spurs is the frustration around the general setting. Which we're going to get to, really. Ultimately, the only table that means anything in this Premier League is the emotional sentient table. That we're going to get to in a big, big way because that is genuinely one of the most fascinating realities in modern football. But I do want to quickly talk about one you wanted to talk about, the fifth big theme, which is one I wouldn't know about for really quite devastating reasons.

28:49This is one you coined the fragility of success. You have to have success to experience the fragile end so I have no clue what you're talking about and I do have a feeling where this is going but I am all ears. I do know this, in life all things must die. Nothing is forever, to everything there is a time. I was reading the novelist Elif Shafak and she wrote, there are cycles in nature, cycles in history we call them drrr I don't know how you pronounce that word but God bless it sounded great when I read it between the end of an era and the beginning of a new one there's always a period of confusion and those for Liverpool fans I inserted that not oldie lift that she says those are the hardest times Roar take it away baby but Liverpool are quite an example of this which is that that it doesn't take much in a lead again it's the same it's the same root cause in a league that is so finely balanced, it doesn't take much for what looks wonderful and golden to become tarnished.

29:50So the difference between Liverpool this season and last season is not£450 million on players. It's not all the players who've left, Darwin Nunez and Luis Diaz. God bless Darwin Nunez. It's that something has shifted in the feeling around Liverpool and results have kind of turned. Not by much, the performances aren't that different, because Liverpool weren't blowing teams away 4 or 5-0 last season. The little margins that were going in Liverpool's favour last season are no longer going in Liverpool's favour. They got a little bit lucky against Brighton at the weekend. That might be a return to it.

30:24It might not be. And the difference is that last season Liverpool walked the lead and this season, at one point, they were like 14th. And in a competition, in a Premier League where the gaps are so slender, the slightest shift, the slightest little ripple... The slightest disturbance in the fourth. has these massive consequences. And it can be positive if you look at Aston Villa. I cannot tell you why Aston Villa did not win their first six games of the season and have now won 10 in 11. I have no idea what has changed at Aston Villa. The players are the same, the managers the same, but the outcome's completely different.

30:58And I think you see that throughout the league, that teams will go on runs and then you get one tiny little switch and everything kind of changes. Again, it comes back to, there's an awful lot of teams in the Premier League who are really, really good. And if you don't get everything right, the consequences can be quite severe. By the way, one of my favourite quotes of 2025 that captures the reality of the chaos and the fragility of success in the Premier League at the moment was when Bournemouth manager Andoni Erol, a gent I just admire so bloody much, his team were as high as second place this season.

31:30They plummeted to 14th. And he was asked, are your team chasing a Champions League slot or were they fighting against relegation? And you just said, quite honestly, you just said both. Exactly. And that's true of an awful lot of teams. And I guess it's one of those things we should maybe cherish while we have it. Because the other element that's fragile about this is that there are still economic differences in the Premier League. And there is a chance that if you take Palace as the best example, Palace this time next year almost certainly won't have Mark Gay in defence. They probably won't have Oliver Glasner as manager.

32:08They may not have Ismail Assar or Jean-Philippe Mateta or Adam Wharton. It's possible they replace all of those with players as good or better. That is possible. It's not a ridiculous pipe dream. But equally, it might be that Crystal Palace are living in their golden moment because ultimately the reality of football will set in at some point and you have to enjoy it while it lasts. Reminder, dear young listeners, we're all going to die. Savour it as you can. I am quite obsessed with this notion, by the way, that all of us in our life have a high point where life is never going to get any better.

32:41We just don't know it at the time. I remember there was a mate of mine when we were in high school, just everything. He was like a John Hughes movie star. Now not so much. And I do wonder, would you want that just to peek at set? There would be a moment when we were at a party where he was 17, he didn't know it in that second, at that party. Life is never going to get better than it was in that moment. You've got to spot it when it happens, I suppose. What if we've had ours? That's really depressing. Oh, yeah. I don't think we need to worry about that. We've definitely had ours. Oh, yeah, we definitely had ours.

33:12I think mine, actually, when I think about the 17-year-old, mine probably happened around the age of eight. And I didn't know. But by the way, when I won that chess tournament, it was magic. I'd take it any day of the week.

33:26Number six. It's one we've talked about, and I do think it's fascinating. It's a new phenomenon. We've actually talked about it a lot on our show, Too Much, which is watching at half times and full times the propensity of modern fans to elect and it is a choice to boo their teams mercilessly. We talked about it in relation to Spurs a lot this season. It's always been the soundtrack to their erratic nature of a reality. Their fans honestly at times seem to not know what to do when their team scores in the first half. They didn't come for something good. No, that's not why we came. Chelsea fans booed their team off at halftime in a game they ended up winning 3-0 against Wolves.

34:09And look, I know football has changed so much since we were kids. And that culture that was familiar was forged in it. Like every culture, it evolves. I remember at Everton when the team were getting beaten, occasionally soundly, it would feel dead at Goodison Park. And it was always guaranteed to be one guy who'd stand up and just scream, Get behind the lads! And everyone would roar again. I mean, like the notion then, someone descended and said, your team have played very badly. And it's time for you all to stand up and boo Everton Football Club. We would not have known. How should we even comprehend that reality?

34:47I mean, it was all about recommitment, about thick and thin. And I do also know that the ticket prices often talked about, like the prices we pay, we deserve. And it is the notion I come from the United States, where sports is far more packaged as entertainment. Football is working class roots. It was the opposite of it. It was always we follow, we follow, we go everywhere with this team. Fans now expect more than that. And I think it is a different reality that you'll understand better than I do. And then there's the other dimension of social media and the way we behave when we're extremely online, which has changed everything in the world, politics, culture, and of course, has buckle football fandom to those norms.

35:25but it does feel raw that everything can either be one of two moods which is ecstatic glory or seethingly angry there can be no in between that feels like the modern football reality and booing it's just the sound of angry tweets in real life that is a massive factor that kind of the the social mediification of most of our kind of social engagements in life is definitely a thing it's a thing not just in football the prices do make a difference they change your relationship with the event as it's happening. It does, doesn't it? And I think that will be relevant when we come to the World Cup in the summer, given the prices that are being charged or being asked for the tickets for that, which is a shame.

36:02Because I think, yeah, if you pay$100 for something, then you're more likely to expect, well, I have a right to be entertained for this investment than if you pay$50. And if you pay$1 ,000, then even more. And it does change your view as to whether you're an observer or a participant. It changes your view as to whether you have a right to be entertained, a right to be happy. And it is a massive factor, as is social media. I think the other thing is, and we've talked about this a lot on the show as well, is kind of football short memory. We don't contextualise things very well. And in a league that is really chaotic, where teams are winning and losing all of the time, I think if you combine all of those things, what you get is a situation where no one's really very happy very often, which is weird, because it is ultimately a pastime that you're meant to enjoy.

36:50and I think that you've got people who go into the stadium who have to an extent, and this is a weird word to use, but maybe been radicalised a little bit by the kind of tone of online debate. Radicalised. Which is a big term, but I think it's probably, it's the same process. It's not obviously like as serious, but it's the same process. You then have people who are kind of annoyed on some level by the amount it's costing them and what they're getting in return for that investment, which is completely legitimate. But you also have this sense of, you might have one last week, but the entire discourse around the game has forgotten that doesn't seem to have noticed that you've won well it's also to i mean you want to talk about radicalization which is very i mean faintly humorous to me the notion of like a radicalized bournemouth fan which is i just love it it's like almost wondrously oxymoronic um but it's also to borrow another term from the ugliness of real life i mean you talk about the short memories part of the reason we have short memories is that football's flooded the zone there are so many bloody games now it is impossible to keep up with it all you can remember is like barely the last one the last two never mind of other teams your team they're playing at such a clip and it has there is so much football it's almost sensory overload so we have lost our it used to be football everything almost everything was three o 'clock saturday it had structure it had symmetry it had an arc a rhythm but boom but boom now bang but if you're a palace fan watching three games in eight days you are just like i don't know which way is up anymore we're all i mean we are all i was joking with john oliver we are in a way all augustus gloop just drowning in the chocolate river of football like you often you often ask me roger like how does it feel watching liverpool you know score when they've been on a bad run of form or whatever like what's your sense in that moment and i quite often tell you that it's relief rather than joy and i think that is true of supporting a team where you are expecting to win most games that the pleasure that for me that i can't imagine what that's like for me that must be like living in like florida and just every day opening up the door and being sunny and 83 again i'm like what what's the i need the seasons i need to be kicked in the down below by being but i think we're absolutely battered by leeds united but we all we all do to an extent it's just that the nature of the kicking the down below is relative, like it changes.

39:08And I think if your team is very successful, and I mean, for long periods of my Liverpool supporting life, that has not been the case. But if they are very successful, your expectations are such that when you win a game, the emotional response is much less pronounced than if you lose a game. I think what's weird is that every fan now seems to exist in that zone. And I don't know whether it's because so many clubs are smart, so many clubs are ambitious, So many clubs will tell you that they are going places. And as a fan, they take you on that journey. And you feel as soon as that journey stops, hang on, this isn't right.

39:44And sometimes you'll blame external factors. So you might get Newcastle fans or Villa fans blaming PSR for limiting their ambitions. But often that anger is directed inwards. It's some perceived mistake from a player or the manager or the team. And that's when you get the booing. Because the booing is without question much more prevalent now than it used to be. the one that got me was Vicario again to bring up I don't know why I'm talking about Tottenham so much but when Vicario gave away that goal against Harry Wilson the Fulham goal where he he didn't clear it he chose to kick it out to the side Harry Wilson apex predator Harry Wilson pounced dispatched it humiliated if Harry Wilson had pulled down Vicario's shorts and given him a bare bottom spanking probably would have been less embarrassing than what he did to him Harry Wilson was 35 yards out on the touchline That is prime Harry Wilson zone.

40:34Harry Wilson wants to be shooting. Jules! That is where Harry Wilson wants to be. He is the Steph Curry of Premier League football. He does not want a two-pointer. He is all three-pointers all the time. Vicario made a mistake. It was a bad bit of goalkeeping. But to me, a fan of my generation, and I suspect to you, you don't boo a player for doing that. You boo a player for not trying. That's the one acceptable time to boo a player. You don't boo a player for being a little bit terrible. because they're allowed to be a little bit terrible. They're still trying. Vicario didn't do it on purpose.

41:06And you've got some Spurs fans trying to dress it up by saying, oh, he didn't run back quickly enough. He could have been Usain Bolt. He's not going to run faster than the ball. Harry Wilson hits it first time. It was in before Vicario had turned real. I mean, this is the reality. When we boot, often it's not about the football anymore. It's about a vent, a release. It's about the outside world. There is a reality that football has become so central. It has almost become the place where we express, where we release, where we almost purge the emotions we're feeling in the everyday. But it is different enough to be its own theme, but it is inextricably connected to this cycle, which is that the media of which we are members, I guess I'm loosely a member.

41:51You're like a day member. Yeah. You're not a full member. Yeah, they wouldn't let me be. You don't understand. What do you call it in a club? You call it like a country member in England or whatever, where you're not given full rights or whatever it is. But the media have become almost performative hot takers. You almost have to be. And as a result of that, you kind of drive these narrative loops to incandescent levels. Football is now stuck. It is stuck. It's what we're talking about in a permanent kind of rage bait cycle on a loop. and that's made the game itself almost secondary to probably tertiary, actually, if you want to be honest, to what the narrative around it and the hot-taking pundits, what they have to say about it.

42:36Yeah, and it always accentuates the negative. Again, as I say, wins become, well, okay, they've won a game, but, but a defeat is cataclysmic. It's freefall. It's crisis. There is now no longer, I must have told you this story before. It's always pundit X lashes out, accuses. Roars, lashes, yeah, all these kind of incandescent, kind of deliberately kind of provocative verbs. But I always remember when Italian football was on TV in England in the 1990s when I was growing up. And there was a wonderful TV show called Gisetta Football Italia, which was all of the goals from Serie A that week, with James Richardson, who's a wonderful presenter, sitting outside an Italian cafe, a lovely piazza, with a huge ice cream sundae, a cup of coffee, and a pink newspaper.

43:19And I always remember that at some point in like 1995, Juventus went through a little bit of a bad patch. And the headlines in Italy were always Juve in Crisi, which I don't know if you speak Italian, Rog, but means Juve in crisis. Got that one, baby. It's my Latin. To talk. Tarchere. They'd drawn three games. Maybe not even that, it might even be two. It was some kind of minor blip in a season that ended with them winning something. A little child Rory said, we'll never have that over here in England, Dad. It was alien to us. That idea of overreacting to that level was totally alien. It was probably, you know, it probably fed into certain kind of stereotypes about Italian passion and impatience that we shouldn't have held.

44:04But we did because it was the 1990s. And it seemed as though it was indicative of a football culture where it all just mattered a little bit too much. And what's interesting, and James Horncastle often talks about this, is that England is not only like that now, it's much, much worse. And as you say, it's driven by this cast of elite pundits who I think are in many ways more famous than the players. Gary Neville, Jamie Carragher, people of that ilk, Thierry Henry, Micah Richards. These are players who have retired and in some cases retired quite a long time ago, Rog. You'd have to be relatively old to have seen them play.

44:42They will quite often, what they say about a game on one of their many media outlets, will often lead the conversation more than what has actually happened in the game. It's Kara says this about this, or Neville slams United. It's this personality-driven soap opera rather than a sporting contest. There's a podcast I listen to over here called Screen Rock, which has nothing to do with football. It's about kind of internet culture. and they had this bit, the two comedians who do it, which I thought was really, really insightful where they said that they're both football fans, one Arsenal, I think one Stevenage.

45:16And they said that football is now less about whether your team wins or loses. It's about whether your fan on the overlaps fan debate gets one over on the Man City fan on the overlaps fan debate. The overlap being Gary Neville's television. One of Gary Neville's many, many outlets. And it's just an example. It's by no means unique to the overlap. But that sense of the games are grist for you to use to argue on social media, that has come, I think, to influence the way we talk about football. It influences the way pundits talk about football. Everything is immediate and knee-jerk and reactive rather than, do you know what, occasionally teams play badly.

45:56The games are up for being decoded. And what the pundits say is declarative. And that you can actually, we can all organise around. And you can't really, the game is almost too nuanced for us all to get to that emotional hyperdrive that we need to. And so now we kind of leave the game behind. It's almost the game is the process. The punditry has become the outcome. And you've seen, you know, Virgil van Dijk this season having a bit of a go at Wayne Rooney. I think Erling Haaland made a joke about Jamie Carried, which is Carried had a go at Mo Salah. This is where we are now. By the way, it's no longer.

46:32Ultimately, football has just become a debating society. One of the great debating societies outside of Oxford University. It's a content creation house. And the stuff that happens between the games is almost more important. Does the games happen on Saturdays and Sundays and you watch them and they're over? By the way, who wants to watch a game? The nine to 11 minutes long throws don't get me started. But I can watch Mo Salah go off in the mix zone. Actually, the Mo Salah is almost the perfectly carved modern footballing moment. a calculated kind of pre-baked outburst by a player that then leads to instant social media fury, which then turns into a clarified firestorm once pundits start to weigh in.

47:14And then every single former Liverpool legend has to weigh in. That one extreme, that one measured, a lot of respect for that one, empathy from that one. You know, ultimately it keeps, it creates almost like a wildfire and that burns and it ferments. Forget the games, we don't even care anymore, but it is. It's about making sure our emotions are always on broil raw. That's ultimately it. The football, God, now I'm quite depressed about 2025. This is the year we're in a post, never mind, we talked about being in a post tactics world which I thought was when we were almost in danger of becoming ridicules of ourselves.

47:48Raw, we're in a post football world. Football has gone post football. It's all about the fume, the good stuff, the venting, the furore, occasionally the aura. Sepp Herberger, who was the legendary German coach in the 1950s had this famous phrase that has gone into German football history which is after the game is before the game. And what he meant was you start your preparation for the next match immediately upon the end of the previous match. It's a coaching mantra kind of, you get the lessons into the players so they don't make the next the same mistakes in the next match or whatever. I'd say that now after and before the game are far more important than during the game because during the game The games are actually annoying, right?

48:32Some stuff happens and you can pick out of it whatever you want. You can see whatever you want in the games. Nothing is conclusive because, and this is one thing that I think a lot of people struggle with weirdly, both teams have agency. So when Liverpool conceded all, Rog, I think it's Liverpool's fault. But sometimes other teams just do good stuff and there's not really anything you can do to stop it. But as fans, we believe that our team is in control of their own destiny. They're not. A lot of it is just chaos. It's windy, it's raining, some teams are taking corners, sometimes you score from corners, it happens.

49:06Between the games though, that's dead time for the media, for the endless outlets that now talk about football, including Men in Blazers. And we need something to fill it. And what we fill it with is Jamie Carragher and Gary Neville. They are the people who drive the content. I just spend 90 minutes just thinking about, hmm, visit Rwanda, and then the real deal comes on the half-time show. I mean, the outcome of this, You hinted this earlier. The outcome of all of this, football in a post-football world, in a post-tactics world, in a duels set piece chaotic world, is that nobody's ever happy. And the emotional sentient table is far more important than the actual table table, which leads to my last question for you, Roar.

49:49Why do we watch again? Because the emotion it inspires. because it is the place where we, like you say, where we come to vent. It's the place where we come to feel. I think in the nicest possible way, it's an analogue feeling in a digitised world. It is rooted in a thing that is happening. It is not kind of remote. It might be happening on a screen in front of you, but you are connected to a community. You are connected to a tribe, and that's really nice. It is that sense of deep connection, by the way. And that applies whether you're in the city or the town where that team was born or whether you are 10 ,000 miles away, it doesn't matter.

50:24You feel that connection to a community and through football, you are able to experience all of those emotions, those highs and those lows. You get these moments of pure, unbridled joy and these moments of deep pain. And ultimately, all of it is addictive. Both of them, by the way. And I do believe in the safest way, the joy and the deep pain in the safest possible way in your life. I've said this many times this year, I'll say it again. If your football team is the worst part of your life, you're doing pretty bloody good. But Trevor Nero actually answered the question quite beautifully when we were live on stage at the Stone Pony and talked about that sense of connection, that sense of by putting on a shirt and seeing someone else in it, you feel that bond and kinship.

51:06And I will say in America, it's really profound. You shared some of it when you were in Boston, that sense of utter connection, global connection, which is truly, truly thrilling and probably makes many of those people that we watched at the Phoenix landing in Boston feel terribly alive, even while Liverpool were not doing what they wanted them to do. It's beautiful. And I do wonder, again, Tottenham fans in America, when your team walks off at halftime and you're watching on the West Coast and it's five o 'clock in the morning and you're in your pyjamas in your bedroom, do you feel the obligation to boo?

51:40Just that little sonic boo emerging from somewhere outside of San Francisco. It would be amazing, because there are a lot of Spurs fans in the States. it would be amazing to think that people on the West Coast are being woken up just by this sort of dull sound of boo coming from their neighbours. I'd really enjoy that. Booans. I want to wrap this up. But before we go, I want to say again, don't miss this exclusive limited time ticket offer. The Bank of America has teamed up with Visa to offer new Bank of America cash rewards card holders. A chance to purchase up to two. Oh my Lord. FIFA World Cup 2026 tickets.

52:14Get your details at bankofamerica.com slash card FWC26. And to close, Roar, first of all, we were here in August together. We went through and made our predictions right here at Spiritland. Do you remember your top four back from them, Roar? I'd be amazed if you did. I think I probably said Arsenal, City, Liverpool, Chelsea. Oh, my God. the way your memory works on a show in which you said we don't remember anything anymore for you to pull that out is just like in that order yes that is like genuinely if you had done an evil Knievel feat of strength I would have been less impressed than by what you just did mine which I didn't remember dear listeners I want to be candid was Arsenal Liverpool how little I knew I spoke that into existence I was saying my worst expectations and my god me me me Manchester City and Chelsea so last question for you Roar can you make one big prediction for the year ahead that will be made real in 2026 well the Liverpool thing is interesting because normally I'd normally not put them in my top four because I also like to speak my worst fears into non-existence and I thought do you know what I remember sitting here in this exact same seat Rog and thinking I'm better than that I'm going to be a mature grown individual and I'm going to say that I think Liverpool will finish third.

53:40And I was wrong and now they're terrible. So thanks for making me do that. I did have a little flash the other day that I think we might get Arsenal-Spurs in the quarterfinals of the Champions League, which I'd really enjoy. I think that Manchester City will win the Champions League this season. That is my prediction. I think you'll probably go for something title related. So I might leave the title to you. But my prediction would be from an English football point of view, I think City will win the Champions League and I think Pep Guardiola will use that as a chance to sign off. And come and manage the US men.

54:12I actually just think a CONCACAF nation is going to get into the semi-final of the World Cup in 2026. I do, I do, I do. I feel it deep in my bones. And I think it will be, I think just even thinking about it makes me feel such unbelievable joy. Why not us, listeners? Why not us in every single regard? I agree on the Manchester City tip. I agree on the Pep Guardiola tip God I don't want to mention who I think is going to win the title because I know my power and I do not want to ruin it. I could never look at Anne Hathaway in the eye again. I couldn't do it to Spike Lee. I couldn't do it to the new mayor of New York who is also like a die hard Arsenal fan.

54:56They are everywhere Arsenal fans deserve their joy as well. That's all I'm going to say and Rory so do you. I want to thank you so deeply on behalf of our listeners especially those in the Rory Smith fan club in Decatur, Georgia for your insights, for your wonder for coming down and being with me in person which I know is a huge sacrifice for your family but I do want to say yours is the voice that deepens Americans' understanding of the Premier League week in, week out and we are indebted and we don't take it for granted That's a very worrying reality, Rog if it's me helping America understand I knew you'd dead back that compliment Yeah, I'm not dealing with compliments Come on, be serious it's Christmas the British don't do compliments at Christmas it's a pleasure Rog I've enjoyed every single second of it especially the first half of the year the second half of the year I can take or leave to an extent but once Arna Slott finds a half decent approach to football matches I'll be happy again but it's been a pleasure can I just say English people don't do compliments at any other time I got off the plane I had to go on a conference call with a lot of people and I wanted to thank the person that set it up so I gave him the American thank you I would Americans love it when you finish the call by saying hey sincerely I just want to thank you mate it was genuinely as if you know I was eulogising about a funeral it was so awkward for everybody especially him and I realise it's not just Christmas English people don't give you compliments just this is a no compliment nation but I'm going to give you one dear listeners GFOPs I want to thank you for your support your passion your insights in our discord in our mailbag meninblazers at gmail.com because above all, that's what sustains us.

56:39Football, as we've discussed, it connects us, but it's what we bring to it that gives it its meaning. So to more together in the year ahead. And I just say, if you want to enjoy football at its best, without watching the football over the holidays, our John Oliver, Christmas week, pod and YouTube special drops as it always does on Boxing Day, December 26th. It'll be on Network NBC, December 27th at 3.30pm Eastern Time. And it is. I think it's life affirming. Let's just not take a second of watching football together for granted and courage.