Arsenal escape VAR chaos, Jeremy Doku's superb form, and how West Ham dug themselves into relegation: Men In Blazers 05/11/26

23:28Roger Bennett:Well, it is, and also it has consequences at the other end of the table. Obviously, if West Ham go down by a point that potentially cost them 150 million pounds for being in the Premier League it might salvage Roberto De Zerbi's career it might salvage Tottenham Hotspur's Premier League status if you think about the consequences of that decision they are genuinely important some of them are real there are real consequences to that decision the the ones that involve us interpreting whether a player is good bad great not a manager has worked or not none of that is fair none of that to base it on a moment like that is fair there is a cruelty in sport that means things do hang on these hinge moments, crotch moments, Raj, I think is a much better term.

24:05Roger Bennett:We don't need to build in all this extra narrative around whether someone is a choker or is a success as well because ultimately that had nothing to do with Mikel Arteta or Bukayo Saka or Martin Odegaard. It was purely and simply one refereeing call that potentially changes the course of history. Yeah, I mean when Spurs qualify for the Champions League next season, Remember this moment, Tottenham fans. Yeah, I mean, we do buckle on the narrative after the fact. I mean, who amongst us is not guilty? There was a moment in the Sky Studio Arsenal legend, Ian Wright, God bless, as someone who doesn't love to be hyperbolic, I support this sentiment completely, Ian.

24:46He said, hearing the referee say the goal was cancelled was the sweetest words I've heard since Martin Luther King said, I have a dream.

24:55Roger Bennett:not sure how Ian's wife and children will feel about that but that's fine that's fine that's for him to say by the way Ian still don't listen to Rory I respect and understand and adore that sentiment did feel odd at the final whistle there was an exhalation 60th game of the season for us I think the most in Europe it's meant to be joyous you know winning titles this was not joyous that's Spencer Aaron wrote in our Insta this week has taken about 10 years off my life But somehow we won both games. Look, the Arsenal fans, I know, have at best, I'd say, a fatigue joy. You know, a joy of the existential type captured by Churchill's famous quote, there's no greater feeling than to be shot at without results.

25:39I mean, this was, make no mistake, a bullet dodged as they close in on their first title since 2004. Arsenal. I mean, what is fascinating to me is that that loss against Manchester City that we felt was back-breaking and fatal in the moment, it didn't end them. This is the poetry of this title chase. Almost spurred Arsenal on. It was a near-death experience that gave them life, Roar. Gave them a born-again sense of potency, a sense of renewed mission, a sense of purpose and ferocity again. Roar, they haven't conceded a single goal since.

26:13Roger Bennett:Yeah, I was listening to Miguel Delaney, who you mentioned before, say the other day that the inside Arsenal there was a real sense of after that defeat they kind of all went into work on Monday morning and thought oh actually yeah there's five games to go this is this is fine we've still got control of this title race if we win all of our games then we will win the lead and I do I do think that's right that there is a a sense it freed them a little bit they you said this before they couldn't they sort of saw their worst nightmare and realized that the consequences weren't that bad and since then they have seemed a little bit more uplifted the pressure I think started to tell on Sunday afternoon that second half performance looked very much like a team that's aware of what's at stake but they they have come through they've bottled the title and lived to tell the tale essentially that's what what's happened to Arsenal I don't like using the word bottle quite so quite so liberally Roger you know that but they've kind of come through it and once you've done that I suppose everything looks like plain sailing but you're right about the weird sensation after the game and I think this is another consequence of the VAR era you know the sense that what you've seen happen you're not entirely sure whether it's real or not sometimes you have to remind yourself what the actual score is rather than the score that you have kind of internally logged as you've seen these goals happen and you think well that was a goal so hang on did we lose did we win can't remember it takes a while to compute it and it creates this slightly uncanny sensation around quite a lot of score lines and West Ham Arsenal was a really potent example of that yeah there was always it wasn't a sense of shame at all because they just won, they got three points, they knew exactly where they were but to go from that moment it almost muted the sense of victory, gave them a sense of their own mortality, that near-death experience but I mean, God Arsenal fans, I mean that is football taking you to places you can't even dream of I mean, left feeling ultimately almost better than the afterlife that is the magic of football, they've been to dark places, that That journey emotionally, to me, is the magic of football.

28:09Arsenal have to beat already relegated Burnley next Monday and a Palace will be three days away from a European final. But for West Ham, my God, we have to spare a thought for them. First of all, an achievement. No team has lost all six London derbies at home in one season. So it's not nothing, an appreciation for their consistency. But in darker ways, Raw, the implications of potential relegation are so financially punishing. You mentioned the number that's being banded around£150 million. Also, West Ham were not prepared for this eventuality. They don't have it in the player contracts, the relegation clause.

28:50It's hard to fathom how they got to this place. Three years ago, they won a European trophy. They then sold Declan Rice for$143 million to reinvest in their supposedly let's build it future. So many bad decisions have led to this moment.

29:07Roger Bennett:If you look at the amount of money they've spent in the last few years, West Ham are towards the top of the table in Europe. Obviously, the Premier League has huge amounts more resources than everybody else. But even so, West Ham spending has been colossal. There is no failure to invest in that team. It's simply a failure to invest smartly, adroitly in the areas that you need with any sort of coherent plan. And I suppose as much as the relegation battle this season has been about Tottenham, because that is the most eye-catching element of it, the idea that Spurs could go down or that they might go down.

29:40Roger Bennett:But West Ham is almost as shocking given the amount of money that has been ploughed into that team over the last few years. and there's a real cautionary tale element to it, far more than with Spurs. Spurs made a couple of bad calls and got caught out and kind of got trapped in this cycle. West Ham have consistently behaved in a way that takes their Premier League status for granted, that misunderstands their place in the hierarchy, that misunderstands the nature of what it is that brings success. They have ignored all of the things that so many other teams do to gain edges, to look for advantages, to make themselves relevant and modern.

30:15Roger Bennett:And they are going now, I think, I mean, again, Leeds could do them a favour by beating Tottenham tonight. We don't know. I think it's unlikely. The odds are now that West Ham will get relegated. And when they do, they will stand as an advert, basically, for what happens if you take your eye off the ball in the Premier League. 85 % chance of being relegated on the Calshi market. I will say, as an Everton fan that has been in the relegation zone at this time of the season, my heart goes out to every West Ham fan. And I know it is just a human darkness, the impotency. It stains your entire week.

30:49It's just a gnawing fear that will not go away to better days ahead for all. Let's go back in time to Saturday, which is now a moot point, but fascinating in its own right. Manchester City 3, Brentford 0. It's quite unnerving in the opening half of this game. The Manchester City faithful are gathered in the quite suddenly unconventional position of having to wait, win, hope for help from other teams. I spoke to Ryan Cherky last week, and he talked about as long as there's hope, there's life. We're not going to ever give up. You can find a link to that quite fascinating interview in our show notes.

31:24First half, though, a stalemate, O 'Reilly and Doku squirreling around. The game seemed to be the battle between Doku and Coyote. Harlem barely touched it, but when he did, he headed it with dangerous intent. Brentford trying to snap behind on the counter. holding City largely to muted chances. It was so quiet. It was almost chilled around that stadium as we approach half-time rule. I kept thinking about the man who less than a month ago was pulling out that big bottle of Arsenal tears and just thinking, he who bottles last, bottles loudest.

31:56Roger Bennett:This is the thing, Rod, you've got to get your kind of banter in at the right time. It's entirely time-dependent. If you don't produce the perfectly memable moment at the perfectly memable time, you never get your shot. so you have to take it. What comes afterwards, no one really remembers, to be honest. There'll be a point in 10, 15, 20 years' time when no one knows who won the Premier League title in 2026, but we all know it was the season of the guy with the Arsenal tears. Yeah, we'll talk about the Manchester United haircut man in a minute. I mean, you've got a time, the context of your memeing.

32:31That's ultimately the most important battle in football right now. But these were tense times. Ryan Dissensherky hauled off, Marmouche and Foden on. and cometh the hour, cometh the doku. Four goals and two assists in the last four games. Here he cut inside, played a lucky one-two off Brentford's Dumsguard and then dispatched the ball into the top corner with agonising, artful precision. I say this because he did it against Everton twice. I know, I know Brentford fans. He's a one-trick show pony. He charged away delirious mix of relief and joy. Royal City without doku in this stretch. are way off the pace.

33:08Roger Bennett:Yeah, he's really stood up, Doto. He's had a slightly strange season because there was a point when he scored against Liverpool at the Etihad in November when there were a lot of people saying, oh, he's really fulfilling his potential. He's evidence of Guardiola's handiwork, the quality of his coaching. He's the most dangerous winner in the country. And then if we're all completely honest, he didn't really do anything for four months. And he suddenly kind of scorched back into life and now is probably the form player in the Premier League, apart from Chris Kavanagh. And that means I'm slightly kind of cautious about Doku.

33:42Roger Bennett:I wonder whether the next step for him has to be kind of producing this sort of form over the course of six months consistently. But at the moment, he is the single individual, probably, who is keeping City in touch with Arsenal. He was asked to describe what has changed for him. He just said, look, Pep shouts at me like he shouts at everybody. He's coming on this week and I cannot wait to talk it through with him. But he also knew City had dropped 12 points on winning positions this year. So even more relief that within 15 minutes it would be two. Semenyo charged baseline, ball bundled into the Kenny Loggins danger zone and early in Harlem pounced upon it, stubbed the ball forward and then kind of backflicked it over the line.

34:2226 goals on the season. Big man doing strong but delicate things. Bit like watching Shaquille O 'Neal make jewellery. He's kind of fascinated by the reaction to the goal rule. Harlan went into his, delayed, but he finally went into lotus position. There was almost a conscious attempt to make iconography around this moment, like almost performatively raw, acting as if they were leading the league. You watch Pep leap up into the air with Calo Turi on the sideline. It's almost like, let's keep the optics positive. Like, you know, a boxer when the fight's gone past the final bell, celebrating before the judges make their decision, even in a fight they know they've lost just to keep the optics high.

35:02Or to sow a seed of doubt, I guess.

35:04Roger Bennett:The one thing that City can do is try and put pressure on Arsenal. And I suppose 24 hours before Arsenal play that game at West Ham, the hardest game they've got left. If City can at least project an air of, we're still in this, we're still going, we're still coming, then that is just the last card they can play, I suppose. Ratcheting up that pressure. I've got to say, Haaland on course to win the Premier League Golden Boot for the third time in four seasons. No one's done that since Thierry Henry won three straight in the mid-2000s. That consistency. For a man who scores as often as we write him off, which is all the bloody time, I think we should never take for granted.

35:42Mahmoud's wrapped it up with a quite acrobatic anti-gravitational finish. Paul Brentford still in eighth now in their European pursuit. I'd say 3-0, not a really fair reflection of the game for them, but it did change the goal difference for City. In that moment, they were just two points behind the Arsenal. The goal difference was, I think, plus one. It's now five points, obviously, and plus two. But how funny would it be, Roar, if that Cherokee goal from the Liverpool game, where the ball kind of rolled that half of the field and then Haaland and Sobberstle battled behind the ball as it trickled into the empty net, it was ruled off oddly because of the fight.

36:19At the time, we said, yeah, they didn't need it anyway, they were going to win. But how funny if that goal ruled off oddly and wrongly was one of the title deciding factors.

36:29Roger Bennett:It would be ideal really for this Premier League season if the two defining moments are a goal being ruled out because there were too many fouls committed in the build-up. So it was easier just to chalk the goal off and send off Dominic Sobberslay. And a seven minute VAR delay at the London Stadium whilst the referee watched 17 different camera angles of what may or may not have been a foul. that's all very 2026 Premier League Rog I'm not sure it's healthy Yeah what are you talking about man Judge Judy's one of the most watched television shows still in America it's why we watch Objection overruled I did love Pep Guardiola post game ending his press conference by screaming come on you irons while crossing his arm to do the club's badge God bless Wednesday night City back at the Etihad against Crystal Palace no time to rest then they got the FA Cup final at the weekend Yeah, it's just against Chelsea, but it is a brutal stretch of five games in 16 days, less a march to silverware, more just a fight for survival.

37:31Talking about fights for survival, Liverpool won, Chelsea won. A football game that felt like the worst episode of entreatment of all time? Your defending title holders. Let me remind you, won the trophy by 10 points with four games to spare last season. Welcome your club, World Cup champions. a team who smashed Barcelona at the end of November, but somehow are now in ninth place. I think both teams' falls will be studied by historians for eons. Just the slotification and the self-resenioring, I think it's called, Roar. Who said trophies bring happiness? You were there, Roar. What was the atmosphere like before the game for this two, you know, massive in name, meek in nature clubs right now?

38:13Roger Bennett:I think low-key might be doing it justice, Rog. This obviously is a game that has a lot of really potent recent history on it. Both teams have songs about each other, specially designed, specially curated hatreds that they like to play out twice a season. But there was a real sense at Anfield of, well, this doesn't really matter that much, does it? Because Chelsea are in a really weird position where they didn't really need to win this game. They needed to draw it. They didn't want a seventh-league defeat in a row. But beating Liverpool would have made it more likely that Liverpool finish fifth, which in turn would close off the only available route for Chelsea to get into the Champions League.

38:50Roger Bennett:I'm not being funny, Rog. It feels like to me that's not an ideal scenario and they should probably do something about it, if I'm completely honest. Whereas Liverpool just want the season to be over. They're not quite in the Champions League yet. There is still a little bit of jeopardy there, I think. Bitters of the form of a couple of teams below them. But they should finish in the Champions League, not really through their own merit. and I don't think any Liverpool fans have enjoyed this season at all even the kind of ongoing debate around slots I don't really detect any great pleasure in it there's a lot of anger and there's a lot of sadness I think Yeah, we'll talk about poor Arna in just one moment I mean the game you mentioned Chelsea on a run of six straight losses Chelsea a nasty habit of conceding early again at least they're consistent six minutes in Ingemoa fed Gravenberg shifted the ball out of his feet and unleashed.

39:43Careless whisper of Jorgensen's fingers, the goalkeeper on the way. And I do think Chelsea should start both keepers at the same time. See what happens there. What noise came out of your mouth as that flew? Because it felt pretty good.

39:54Roger Bennett:Genuine surprise, Rog, because Chelsea start badly, but so do Liverpool. Liverpool don't straw early. They're not meant to straw the first goal in a game. They're meant to grind away for an hour and then fall behind. That's how Liverpool play football. At that point, and for a few minutes afterwards, Rog, it really looked like Liverpool would maybe use this afternoon to inject a little bit of joy back into their season. Beat a team that the fans don't like, that there is a genuine rivalry with. Condemn Chelsea to being the real crisis club of the Premier League. Remind everyone, I guess, that the crisis is relative and that for all Liverpool have had a disappointing season.

40:27Roger Bennett:They started the day and ended the day in fourth. Chelsea are down in ninth. It looked like maybe there would be a little bit of late season sunshine at Anfield Roach. It was. It was sparkling. Liverpool when the sun shines, there's no finer city in the world. Sadly, it only happens four times a year. And we didn't know it at the time. That would actually be Liverpool's only shot on goal in the first half. Chelsea, in those six losses, scored just bloody once. But Liverpool are so soft, so porous. And the goal when it came was Benny Hill music style. Enzo drove a routine free kick from the flank, skidding into the Liverpool box.

41:03Vafana stuck out a leg, didn't touch it. Psych. and the ball just flew past the frozen flat-footed Marmash Veerly. Really raw. You could not find a more fitting goal to resemble the frail psychological and physical abilities of both teams.

41:18Roger Bennett:No, it was suitably pathetic, Rog. I think that's the right way to put it. It had also been coming. From about the 10th minute, Liverpool should have gone 2-0 up through Van Dijk after about 10 minutes and he missed. And after that, Chelsea didn't really create chances, but they created moments that could have led to chances. to Correa down the left in particular, you could tell that Liverpool were sort of dicing with disaster. So the manner in which they got caught out was slightly weird, a little bit odd, but the fact they got caught out wasn't surprising in the slightest. Truth is, Liverpool now conceded more goals, 18 from set pieces than ever before, most in the league this season too.

41:54It's even worse, I think, from a Liverpool perspective because they've just seen Chelsea get utterly smoked by Nottingham Forest's second string last Monday. There were boos at halftime. More boos when Slott subbed off. Ingemo in 66 minutes tonight, he tweaked and muscled according to Slott. More boos full-time. Liverpool could not beat a Chelsea who just lost six games straight. Worse, they seem to have no cohesion, no tactics, no idea, no traction in the midfield. I keep thinking about that beautiful moment. Rio's goal against Newcastle Raw. The football tank, 10 players touched the ball in that build-up.

42:31Perhaps Sobbersly pulled off an exquisite dummy. And for months after that, you felt like that was leading to something. Instead, you just had flickering individual moments. Nothing that makes you believe you're watching a team that, you know, train together.

42:45Roger Bennett:Yeah, the season's been held together basically by Dominic Sobbersly's long-range shooting. That is the only thing. And Dominic Sobbersly's disgust. Yeah, there's not been many times this season where you watch Liverpool and think they're playing well. I actually thought at Anfield on Saturday, in the second half, they were okay. Chelsea had one ruled out very early on after the break and that seemed to sort of scare Liverpool into life. They hit the post, they hit the bar, I think they had one ruled out through Curtis Jones. The second half performance was fine. The first half performance, Rog, was absolutely atrocious.

43:17Roger Bennett:I don't think I've ever seen a Liverpool team that passive, that tentative, that flaccid. There's a clip that's doing the rounds on the socials, Rog, of Mamad Ashvili trying to kickstart an attack with the ball and seven players just walking around near him. They feel directionless and aimless. The crowd aren't really engaged. They don't like the style of football. The booing of the Undermost substitution in particular was, I think, partly a kind of build-up of frustration across the course of the season, which I think is how the players have taken it. It's also just, I think, an expression of the fact that the crowd know that this has all been fairly miserable.

43:55Roger Bennett:They want it to be different. they probably understand that given the players they've got available it's not entirely sure how it could be different in the next couple of weeks but it's a real sign that something has to change for Liverpool because this has now ground to a halt and obviously in terms of the manager it's hard to see to be honest how it's sustainable yeah but at the same time you know Liverpool are briefing that slot will be there he's talking about how it'll be another off season of transition but asked whether he believes he can win back the support of fans he said yes I believe I can I'm 100 % convinced we'll be a different team next season.

44:30But you're right. To me, the fans feel so done with honour. It's very, very clear. That's almost impossible to heal. You don't, football is not a place where you win the fans back. It just doesn't work like that, particularly not after a long off season. And the thing that's missing is Klopp had just passion, fire, warmth, that connection. And in bad days, that would get him through with the fan base. But even in winning days, Arne has kind of projected a coldness, a chill, a low affect. And so there's no warmth. There's no affection. There's almost no connection in times of chaos and stress.

45:09Roger Bennett:Yeah, I think that's a really important part of it. The other thing that makes the comparison not quite work, and look, Klopp did have bad periods, obviously. But even when he did, you could see that the style of play that he wanted was worth waiting for. It was worth enduring the difficult times for him. Obviously, it's difficult relative. Klopp never failed spectacularly. They've never in the relegations battle or anything like that. Whereas with Slott, I think the problem is no one can quite see what they're meant to be waiting for. He's probably right to say that with a couple of quick winners in the team, things would look different.

45:41Roger Bennett:I'm not sure that's a great advert for his managerial ability to say, if you buy me some better players, I'll be better at this. That's not necessarily what I want to hear from my manager. but I'm not sure the fans have seen enough to believe that even if you throw in Bradley Barclay and Yandy Amande or whoever that it automatically looks better because it's so murky at the moment what what Liverpool are trying to do that's the worst of it is that you can't see what they're trying to do with Klopp when things weren't working you understood what they were trying to do even if it wasn't coming off with slot it's really hard to tell and I think that's the problem he's got my my sense is whenever I see Liverpool play now I think this probably can't work long term and then you hear him talk and you think you know you seem like a good guy you seem like you you really want this to work you're smart you're personable you you are probably more charismatic than you seem initially through you know through through the television or through the through the screen but I just come back to time and time again this idea that the circumstances in which slot can win the fans back, rely on so many things going perfectly that it's almost unrealistic.

46:46Roger Bennett:I think the much more likely thing is that if he's in charge next season, the moment Liverpool turn in, the sort of flat performance that has characterised this entire season, where they are outplayed by an opponent, where they give up loads of chances, where, as was the case for the first time for Chelsea this season, that Liverpool are outrun by an opponent yet again. That's amazing. That statistic amazing. The first time Chelsea have outrun their opponents this season was Liverpool. As soon as that happens next season, if Slott's in charge, it won't be the kind of grumbling discontent that you've seen at key moments in the last few weeks.

47:19Roger Bennett:I think it is full-scale mutiny. And that costs you another year. And it pains me to say it. I think, Rog, that we've kind of got detached from the idea that your club, sacking your manager, should be embarrassing. But I don't really see any other way now. Yeah, the only way I can think about it is if Slot does something radical, like goes off to Turkey and has an incredible hair transplant over the summer. Turns back and goes, new season, new me, lads. Stands there with Homer Simpson when he's young, with a fringe. It'll just be genuine. We don't recognise your honour. We're with you, son. We're with you.

47:51Roger Bennett:Change his name, get a haircut. The other thing, Roger, and this is maybe a bit cynical. Two tattoo sleeves. The other thing is... Cut. Absolutely cut on the sideline. It'd be amazing. If you're Liverpool and you want to keep Slot in charge, you probably need to announce a transfer pretty soon. That is the realistic, short of the turkey option, Rog. Yeah, which by the way, I'm just putting it out there. It'd be a lot cheaper. Be a lot cheaper. Just be the new you that you are and body for your team are. They'll be magnificent. Chelsea into the cup final next weekend. They are so bereft. I keep thinking about another ball manager, Mareska, coming on our show right on the eve of the new season.

48:27And I asked him, you know, you just played the Club World Cup. How will that impact the actual season, not having a proper off-season? and he goes, that's a good question. Nobody knows. Nobody knows. And we found out, and it has been grim. Cole Palmer, no goals in like, what is it now? 10 games now. At Not Goldfinch in the Men in Blazers Discord, which is the best way to watch a game. He said, one of the highlights of this season for me was the late winner against Liverpool in the earlier part of the season. Maresca running down the touchline like old school Jose. The vibe so good. Because we hadn't really realised what a generational fall-off Liverpool were in for yet.

49:05We were all so naive.

49:07Roger Bennett:That again, that feels like it was a lifetime ago that Esteveu scored that winner because it did seem to herald the dawn of a new Chelsea, this new star, this teenage Brazilian winner who seems set to kind of take the Premier League by storm. Liverpool have had a generational fall-off since then. Is it worse that Chelsea's fall-off is a bit more predictable and maybe happens a bit more regularly? I'm not entirely sure. All of us in life are just living out Tracy Chapman's feelings in fast car. Enjoy what you can. Well, you can is the moral of that. Sunderland 0. Manchester United 0. I'm talking about enjoy.

49:42This is a total forgettable dead rubber of a game. Offered little to discuss. Apart from an incredible performance from goalkeeper Lomans, who's been stealthed, one of the change-making players of this United season. They've already mission accomplished. The United returned to Champions League football. a game but impotent Sunderland ultimately, Tootless United without Shasko and Casemiro second best in almost every facet of the game. Fascinatingly they haven't won any of the four games they played without the departing Casemiro three losses and this draw and how they replaced the square shaped Brazilian midfield is going to be one of the stories of their off season.

50:21We are just two years on rule from Jamie Carragher off in Casemiro, the quite cutting advice, leave Leave the football before the football leaves you. The Casemiro resurgence, the dominance, leaving on his own terms, the point knowing that he just will be missed so bloody much. It's humanly ferocious.

50:41Roger Bennett:Yeah, and it's really uplifting because there was a point where Casemiro looked very much like he was treating Manchester United as his own personal Saudi Arabia, that it was where he'd gone to retire. When Carradine made that, and it's really easy to be kind of dismissive in hindsight, but when Carida said that he was completely right. Casemiro had been abysmal for Manchester United almost since the day he signed. He wasn't helped by the managerial situation, by the recruitment around him. What we've seen I think in the last six months is that when he's put in a system that suits him and supported by players who fit him, his experience has been invaluable and they will really miss him.

51:21Roger Bennett:I'd be slightly surprised if they hadn't at least asked him if he wants to reconsider his decision to leave. There's something really nice about that, because we shouldn't take for granted just what a good player Casemiro has been, particularly for Real Madrid. God, it was my dad's life motto. Stop at the top, leave while the party is still rocking. We'll say, that United fan, the one who's not getting his hair cut until the team win five in a row. This game was his last chance all season. It is fascinating to me. I mean, football fans are all becoming like meme analysts, ultimately. but you know he was the meme of the early season the Amarim era essentially I think I even asked Ruben Amarim about him when Amarim got within touching distance of five games but this is a different Manchester United this up-term of form roar that five game hair quest it almost seems like out of context out of vibe you know dude may well go bald before United ever win five straight league games again which is I think another case of of nature being healing yeah I mean I suppose in a way you have to commend his commitment to a promise that he's made.

52:26Roger Bennett:I think you should keep your word. That's important. It's an important life value to have. But at the same time, I think basically everyone would probably just think, well, get your hair cut. It's fine now. They're third. They've had a good season. We don't care. We're celebrating. No one cares anymore. It's amazing. Yeah. It's amazing. Give your hair, you know, like to honor Slott or something. Do something really profound. Do something charitable. Do something good. Do something good. wouldn't that be amazing if Arna just like turns up first game of the season against Ipswich and Anfield and he's just got that United, what is it, United strand, United strand throat.

53:00Roger Bennett:I think, I mean, it would be an interesting approach to saving his job, yeah. No, it does, it feels totally out of kilter with where United are now. It feels like United have moved on a little bit from the haircut five games in a row bit, to be honest. God, he'd look like Arna Slott looking like what's his name, Queen's guitarist is it? Brian May, make it happen it'll be amazing, like a donor organ to London, Fulham nil Bournemouth won, this game mattered Bournemouth, this team, their own fans we made a film about them last season and they're old fans fans of a team that for so long have been a footballing footnote in the entire league pyramid, they call their own team Little Tim Pot Bournemouth, Little Tiny Club, they're on the cusp of Europe, which is remarkable.

53:47First half, in which two bright teams optimistically exchanged moments and momentum, cancelled each other out to be candid, to the extent that they both even took VAR-reviewed reds within minutes, and Ryan Christie, and then a truly idiotic Joachim Anderson, leveler of a tackle, made it 10 men football. And then Ryan, 19 years old, turned into like peak playoff Wemby, you don't shoot, you don't score, rifled a deflected shot from distance, 3-3 for him your cherries who haven't lost since Anton Semenya left in in January which is amazing just the fans bast in the sun singing the name of Antonia Arola their manager who's leaving at the end of the season leaving them possibly in the Champions League if it goes to six places and Villa win the Europa League it'll just be it'll be one of the most incredible feats in in English football to lose all that talent their entire backline gone, then Semenyo, and then to have their manager announce I'm leaving.

54:49I mean, Roar, in a world in which money is meant to utterly correlate with finishing position, I think they should come in 16th with 121 million spent, pound for pound. One of the greatest modern footballing campaigns I've ever seen.

55:02Roger Bennett:Absolutely extraordinary for Miraiola. And as you say, Rog, it's not just the fact that their wage bill is lower than 15 or 16 of the other teams in the Premier League. is the fact that he started this season with a totally repurposed team and he just didn't seem to bat an eyelid. Not only that, he didn't complain. He didn't say, well, this is outrageous. What can you expect me to achieve? He just got on with things. You mean he didn't do the manager thing that he should have done, which is bait his owners to fire him by just saying disgusting things about that team's progress? And look, to be honest, that is the one thing that will hold him back from getting a big club job.

55:34Roger Bennett:Because is he qualified? Has he ever baited his owners? Yeah, point the finger, man. I mean, it is a crazy thing. We've got to talk about Erola for a second because the fruit of, yes, tough matches, Man City next, Nottingham Forest to come. But Erola, media reports currently have him on the way to Crystal Palace, according to reports, a lucrative deal. Does feel like a strange move, if it's true, almost a lateral move, Roar. Other than Andoni Erola is a man who, when he's come on this show, talked about how he likes projects. He knows when he's done. He talked to us about how he knows when he's given his all at a club.

56:08He said this week it wasn't an easy decision, but once it's made, you feel relief. I know Andoni loves London. I know he wants to be there. But how do you kind of process this? Trading one aligned club for who overachieved for a joyful overachieving, slightly less aligned club? It would be a very curious move.

56:28Roger Bennett:It's so unlikely that I think it probably won't happen, Rog. There will be bigger teams looking for a Raiola. He would be top of the list for Chelsea, who need a manager. I think he's probably the one that United will be thinking about if they don't give it to Michael Carrick. I personally think they will and should give it to Michael Carrick. But if they choose not to, I think Iriola is probably the leading contender there. You could make the case that if Liverpool was a sacked slot, Iriola would go in there. There are various jobs that will come up this summer that Iriola would be a leading contender for.

56:57Roger Bennett:If Palace can get him, that would be extraordinary for them. I don't quite see what's in it for Iriola beyond proximity to West End shows. You think that's what it is? We'll find out at the end of the day. Irola, who by the way does love the novels of Murakami, we talked about them in some depth, you think it's just that he's like a song and dance man, he loves a musical. well and whenever you hear it quite a lot about people that really love London I always wonder what aspect of London is it that they like is it the shopping is it the musicals you can get most it's probably not the weather is it the pubs the pubs are better elsewhere like I'm not entirely sure what would appeal to Andoni or Aola given the life that most Premier League managers lead about being in London his family I think would probably like it my guess is that he will end up in London this summer but I don't end up with Crystal Palace he's just at the end of the day a song and dance man Reminds me of Roy Hodgson, Julian Barnes, a novelist, came on the show and he said that the little known thing about Roy Hodgson is he actually prefers being at novelist book readings than he does at football matches, which I just just adore that notion.

58:02In darker news, we have to note Bournemouth immediately dropped Spanish fullback Alex Jimenez from their first team on Friday. He launched an investigation over alleged exchanges on social media between Jimenez and an individual who appears to state that they're a 15-year-old minor. There's more to come. Huge credit to Bournemouth for taking immediate action rather than saying they've got to stand by their player and keeping him in the squad, which has kind of been football's fairly awful standby move.

58:31Roger Bennett:Yeah, football has a habit of turning a blind eye when it really wants to turn a blind eye. It's not that hard to make sure you do the right thing. Quickly, two other games starting with Nottingham Forest 1, Newcastle 1, all hail Forest manager Vito Pereira, who warned his team they had no time to, quote, wallow after the Europa League of semi-final walloping. They had to match West Ham's results or better to reach the sanctuary of Premier League survival. And they got it to a sumptuous late equaliser. Yes, Newcastle, your team can't keep clean sheets in 2026. Then they've also dropped it at a league-high 27 points from winning positions.

59:0988-minute equaliser through the great Elliot Anderson, skipped through the Newcastle back line, slammed home. What he must have felt, this boyhood Toon fan came through the Newcastle Academy, was sad to be sold for£44 million in June 2024 to ensure the club complied with financial regulations, pointed up to the sky to honour his late mum who he just buried 48 hours earlier. Just incredible strength of character. But raw, Forrest Extend, eight game unbeaten streak and Vitor Pereira, what a man. I think the best way of framing him, he is what Spurs thought they had in Igor Tudor. He's just a peak elite ferryman.

59:49Roger Bennett:Yeah, and I don't want to be the negative guy here, Rog, but it does give Evangelos Maranakis, a man who likes a deep philosophical question, a real poser, to be honest, because Pereira's really good at keeping teams up. The evidence we have is that he's not great at building from that point. So what do you do this summer? Do you keep him in place? Does he kind of earn that shot? Or do you accept that he's done his bit and go and get someone who can take you much further away from the foot of the table to where you kind of want to be? Or fire him and then rehire him. Say to him, I'm going to fire you.

1:00:24coming back for the last 10 games of next season, all right?

1:00:28Roger Bennett:This sounds really stupid, Rog, but I mean this completely seriously. Is there an argument for keeping Vitor Pereira on a retainer? Yes. I like this. Go on. Just say... What a life, also. It would be like being a teacher. You know, you get massive summer holidays, really long summer holidays, and you just have to come in, save the club, the last 8, 9, 10 games of the season. Because I presume if you have to pay up his contract, that will cost quite a lot of money. Yeah. Say you make the sensible decision that he can't do what you want him to do over the course of a season. He can't get you into European contention.

1:00:59Roger Bennett:But you're going to need him if things go wrong. So you go out in the summer. You make your big fancy appointment. You go and get Marco Silva from Fulham. But you say, Vitor, we're not going to fire you. We're not going to pay up your contract. But we are going to pay you a sum to be on retainer. So if we need you, you belong to us. That is a perfectly sensible business move. Vitor, if you're listening, just make sure you get health benefits as part of this deal. You've got to have health benefits, Vito. Come on. Burnley 2. That's the Villa 2. I don't know where this came from. Burnley fans, Villa perhaps quite hungover from the ecstasy of Thursday's swaggering Europa League semi-final win.

1:01:33All those celebratory John McGinn finger spectacles do exhaust the man. We've got to pay tribute quickly to Villa manager Unai Emery. His statistics in the Europa League are unbelievable. Unbelievable. Jentler's managed. I think the statistic is 46 % of the Europa League final since 2014. Just reaches sixth with four different clubs over the course of 13 seasons. Sevilla, 2014, 15, 16. Arsenal, 2019. Villarreal, 2021. And now Aston Villa, 2026. Every time he's led a team with the word Villa in their name, Roar, they've won. Which means not you, Arsenal.

1:02:13Roger Bennett:That is weird, it never occurred to me that he seems to need a villa the Sevilla, Villarreal, Aston Villa that is an odd pattern do you think it works with just villas or is it other types of housing stock as well? I don't know, there's a team with the word Casa in their name There's a Crystal Palace God bless Palace, that's your manager get Emery in well they're going to get European glory please God without him anyway we'll talk about that in just one moment, but Zillow if you're listening, get Emery on some kind of an endorsement contract. Brighton 3, Wolves 0. Lesser game of football, more sheer human capitulation.

1:02:55Wolves lasted longer than many of their travelling fans would expect. An entire 35 seconds until Jack Inchelwood headed home. Game over on five minutes. Lewis Dunk just able to do pretty well the same thing on March. Rob Edwards was seething after the game, questioned his own players' quote professionalism and threatened a complete clear-out. Wolves, just the second team after Sheffield United in 2023-24 to lose against every other single team in an entire campaign, which, Ro, I always do. I admire completionists. I really do in life.

1:03:30Roger Bennett:It feels like if you don't go down, you should go down properly, Rog. And that is going down properly. And collect the set. Nightmare. It's got to be said for Brighton's Japan international, Karim Matuma went down clutching his left hamstring in the 56th minute, held his head in his hands before limping off. We're a month away from Japan's kickoff against the Netherlands on 14th of June, and we wish him well. For Brighton, it's lovely to see Fabian Hertz sign a new three-year contract until June 2029. That man-child honestly looked like he was on his way out in February after a truly dismal dip in form.

1:04:06Not like he burnt his way out of the club, but a run of six wins in nine games means the Seagulls will be back in Europe. Outside chance, that flickering chance of Champions League 2, and it is magnificent. Tonight, Tottenham attempt to reinforce their great deserved escape, welcoming Leeds. By the way, Arsenal's victory over West Ham means Leeds have secured another season of Premier League football. It is remarkable, that achievement, the fervent fan base, the bare pit of a stadium, alchemic German manager Daniel Farker, who's been written off as a manager at this level, working out how to march on together.

1:04:44Roger Bennett:In its own way, I think it's as significant as Manchester United being back in the Champions League. To be perfectly honest, Leeds staying up. It means that for the first time since that BLC year, they can build for life as a Premier League club. They have that money coming in again. They have the fan base. They have plans to expand the stadium. As someone who is a Leeds well-wisher, Rog, it's really important. If you're going up and down, if you're always at risk, it's hard to build for the future. It's hard to build long-term. This gives Leeds a chance to kind of put down roots in the top flight for the first time in 20 years.

1:05:15Amen. And big, big love to my friend Larry Nance Jr. and all the owners of that mighty, mighty club. Calci currently has Spurs relegation on to just 15 % now. God bless the Zerbe exercising the demons. And talking about demons, Crystal Palace 2. Everton Football Club 2. Palace fresh off qualifying for the Europa Conference League final. Just an ecstatic achievement. The joy of the FA Cup and then the dip into the darkness to rise again. Humanly remarkable. Everton fresh off their own history. The 3-3 win against Manchester City. You're welcome, Arsenal fans. We knew Palace would be hungover. Oliver Glasner said in his press conference before the game, we don't wave the wide flag against Everton, but and I've got to say, Everton opened like Brazil 1970, they stroked the ball about in ways that were I mean, they were unexpectedly erotic, if I'm being honest six minutes in, Everton won a corner by the way, everything I'm about to say is utterly true, I was watching with all my kids in a room together, it's so great, they're all here, and the camera closed in on James Tarkovsky trotting up, and I said out loud.

1:06:21Why is he even bothering going up? He never scores. The ball then flicked to the far post. Stabbed home ahead of Sarr. Like a boss. Again, Roar. Football teaches us all. We know nothing.

1:06:32Roger Bennett:That is the ultimate act of manifesting though, that Roger. I say that before every Liverpool corner. Why is that guy going forward? Why is Virgil Van Dijk going forward? He never scores. Why is Mo Salah up there? He never scores. You're manifesting. That's basic manifestation. It's a core of been a fan.

1:07:19time but I was so bloody proud of him he's just deep ball knowledge and I felt a tinge of the sadness that I've inflicted on all my kids it's like an Everton plague I've given them so it was just no surprise when Ismail Assar given all of the space to pick up the rebound on his own shot in the heart of the penalty area and slap him his 20th at the seasonal comps does not get enough talk about him that man incredible season for a 20 year old but he's scoring against Everton it was so bloody predictable it honestly barely hurt.

1:07:46Roger Bennett:He is one of those players who doesn't get nearly enough attention to $20 in the season is remarkable for Sar, given what Palace have been through as well. That's a real testament to how he's kind of stood up and been counted after losing first Alise, then Eze. Sar's kind of stepped into that role as best he can. What did shock me, Ruhr? Seconds into the second half, Everton were back like Mike D. Beto, God bless, charge half the field, turn the choir inside out and then slip the ball deliciously through the goalkeeper Henderson's legs. I would not have been more surprised if before our eyes using AI, Beto just was like man-turned into R9.

1:08:26Roger Bennett:Beto's not had a bad end of the season, Rog. He's been okay. He's been okay for a little while now, Beto. He's been okay. He's been incredibly great. You look at the pantheon of great Everton strikers rule of the modern period. There's like Romelu Lukaku and then like 30 or 40 dudes with barely a pulse. You could make the case. It's Rom, large drop-off, Beto. I would say... Huge, huge drop-off, Cenk Tooson. The use of the word pantheon in connection with modern Everton strikers is inappropriate. I adore Beto. Good, Beto best. I'm not going to have any Beto slander on this show. Why would we slander our players when they do it for themselves?

1:09:09Because Palace had nothing to play for. So, of course, they got back into it. Just the sad stall out of this Everton season. you know same mistakes tired legs the number of shots we allow from like two feet out lack of substitutions it is an agony I've watched these last few games Europe was at our mercy after we beat Chelsea and we've been able to make it just seem like a reminder of the human truth that we're all going to die that's all I feel like when I watch Everton's second half no surprise when Mateta left free and clear to slam home from like on the goal line. Why can't we have nice things?

1:09:46Crystal Palace have nice things, Brentford, Bournemouth, Brighton, Joy, Memories Made, the promise of Europe to come. Instead, we got three points out of our last 15. We're just like frittering it all away.

1:09:59Roger Bennett:Do you think there might be a benefit in that though, Rog? Do you think maybe Europe next season would have been asking a bit too much of the squad? Is this maybe a slower, more sensible way of building? God, you can't be hypothetical about history. If the plot against Hitler had worked, would the war have ended quicker? Dot, dot, dot. We'll never know. I want to get to your letters in just one moment, because I've got to get away from this dark stuff. But first to toast, I want to raise the third first Michelob Ultra of the day to Liverpool fan at Becky Taylor Gill. I love this post. A viral photograph of herself at Anfield.

1:10:34Just a book on a lap in front of the game playing out before it. And she tweeted out saying, reading my book at Anfield to appear nonchalant so that Virgil van Dijk sees me and brings me out of the crowd to ask me to be their new head coach. Which just captures in the essence of so many things I love. Football fandom, literary mindsets, the creativity of readers and the storyline role. Or if it was turned into a movie, Virg has taken a hand and plucking her out of the crowd to be the chosen one. It'd be like the greatest rom-com mashup of She's All That and Rodney Dangerfield's Ladybugs. I've got to say, someone needs to make that movie now.

1:11:11Roger Bennett:It would be an excellent movie, particularly if it's based on the fact that someone was in the crowd reading a book and therefore you sort of assume they were kind of above it. They didn't really care. I liked the plot very much, Rog. I think we should workshop it. I love Becky Taylor Gill. It's just like genuinely, you can imagine Virg will be like, hey Becky Taylor Gill only you can save us it's the kind of thing that would come out of his mouth right he's that noble he loves to read a Virgil van Dijk book club but he's also Dutch so what he would say would be incredibly blunt and devoid of any kind of artifice or emotional sensitivity so it'd be like you are reading the book you think you are better than us why don't you come and manage us that's how it would be framed yeah that'd be amazing Becky may I be the first to say Becky Taylor Gill out after four games of the season when the fans have all turned on that you don't want it, Becky.

1:11:59Just keep reading. Keep that imagination flowing. Talking about imagination, to our letters from our overflowing mailbag, menandblazers at gmail.com. Keep sending them to us. This one's from George Knights of Indiana. George says, Roar, do the honest.

1:12:13Roger Bennett:In a lead which has never been tighter, in which we've seen teams that make incredible strategic decisions, for which the football world has come up with the serious word aligned, but essentially means grown up and sensible. Why do so many big teams still persevere with non-strategic, or unaligned decisions. Aligned is very linked in. That was me. I look at Tottenham or my West Ham, and I see their fall as just the outcome of a thousand terrible decisions. Why don't they look at the teams that largely start with a letter B and think, you know, let's try and make some of these good ones for a change.

1:12:45Roger Bennett:Is it out of deference to tradition? Courage. George, as in Tyreek George, which is a reference I really enjoy. I love that too. Thanks for the name confirmation. I love that notion let's try and make some of those what do they call good decisions for a change should we do that? these teams seem to be making good decisions do you think that's an idea? should we try it? it's not for us it's not the way we've done things at West Ham let's just take that money I said put it in the garbage can and set it on fire maybe that's what the West Ham way is quite a famous thing still in England the kind of idea that West Ham was the team that produced the core of the inland team that won the 1966 World Cup and stuff.

1:13:28Roger Bennett:Maybe now the West Ham way that they have to sustain at all costs is just doing things badly. Yeah, that's what we do. We think about good decisions and we do the opposite. This player is overpriced at 32. He's a West Ham player. But do you not think, I mean, it's a great question. Do they not look at, I mean, football is a deeply copycat world. You know what I mean? They do a long throw, will do a long throw. So they do grip, you know, why do more big teams, essentially the London teams, just keep burning the money in the garbage can? I mean, also it gets down to the fact that football cultures are really fragile, kind of fickle, feeble things.

1:14:05Can you explain?

1:14:06Roger Bennett:George's question is framed funnily, obviously, you know, as though the tradition is now making bad decisions. But I think it is actually history. I think that's the answer. The reason that bigger teams find it harder to be nimble or innovative or smart is because there is much more weight of this is the way we do things. It's really hard for West Ham. I actually think Everton fall into this category a bit as well, Rog. I think it's really hard for those clubs to accept that they have to buy players so they can sell them to bigger teams. I think that for West Ham's ego, that's a difficult decision to make.

1:14:39Roger Bennett:Not just their ego, but their wealth. they are the they're one of the 15 richest clubs in the world they won't look at that and think well we should buy players so we can sell them to Manchester City but we know now that's how you develop that's how Brighton Brentford Bournemouth those B teams that George was talking about that's what they have done to kind of leapfrog their way up the standings and I think that the bigger kind of traditional like super middleweight teams so teams like West Ham Tottenham and Everton I think they've struggled to do that over the last 15 or 20 years. They can't quite bring themselves to say, we're prepared to accept that the hierarchy has changed and we have to fit within it in order to try and change it.

1:15:21Roger Bennett:Whereas Bournemouth, Brighton, Brentford, there's no real weight of history. There's also not a huge amount of clamour from a fan base that is wedded to a specific vision of that club because they are historically much smaller teams. They have much smaller fan bases. they are grateful to an extent to anyone who can kind of lift them out of what they've been. That's not true for West Ham, Everton and Spurs. And I think that is a real weight that has, to varying degrees, held all three of them back a bit. So true, man. I was watching a game at Bournemouth and the fans around me, I kept saying to them, you're sad that you're not going to see at the time, it was like Kerk, Semenyo, Utara again.

1:15:58And they were like, no, it's just an honour for us to watch them play, to watch Housen play in a Bournemouth jersey to make the memory of that guy who's clearly going places, playing for our tiny club, is magnificent. Let's just say you don't hear that at the Hill Dickinson too often. I mean, ultimately, football's a non-rational world, George. And I think that's pretty core to an understanding of the answer. What Brentford, Brighton and Bournemouth, when I think about them, Roar, what they do have, they shared that they have smart human beings in their front office. And many of them have got really long-term trusting relationships, like Brighton's owner, Tony Bloom, is a very smart man.

1:16:38I mean, you watch what he's done with Hart so quickly up there in Scotland. So is Brentford's Matthew Benham, who came on our show. It's an incredible interview that I did at MIT Sloan. Bournemouth's Bill Foley. Also, they have a staff around them that they believe in, trust, and empower. You know, they're not churning. None of these clubs are churning through front office bodies. Paul Barber, the Brighton CEO, joined the club in 2012. You need long relationships for serious decisions. You need clear roles. I think you also need small front offices, Rour. You look at Manchester United, the comedy of their top-heavy front office, where they have a CEO, director of football, head of recruitment, director of sports, and all of them end up just turning on each other and kind of warring from power.

1:17:23It's just self-sabotage. A story I loved earlier this season that's kind of stayed with me about Spurs, I think it was on ESPN, was about how Spurs actually did think they were doing a, quote, smart thing because they were using cutting-edge analytics to recruit their players. They were looking for a combination of what they called athleticism. They wanted players who had endurance, explosiveness, these were their words, speed. So they brought in Erdbeer, Lucas Berg, Valarchi, Gray, Dominic Solanke, Conor Gallagher, all solid players. But what they didn't check for was passing ability. and almost all of these players are poor or very, very limited.

1:18:02So they ended up building a roster that could run and run, but barely pass the ball. And then once James Madison was knocked out, they were totally cooked. And that's how it works. And what does that teach you, Roar? Ultimately, probably these clubs are at their most dangerous. Some of these clubs, when they do try and make smart decisions, they're better off not trying. Yeah, do you know what? I think there's something in that, Rog, that you're almost as well not doing something

1:18:28Roger Bennett:if you don't fully understand what you're doing. I think that is a real danger. I'd actually, I've got to admit, I'd separate Spurs out a little bit. I think Spurs have done lots of intelligent stuff in the last 10 or 15 years. And as much as the last two seasons, certainly in the Premier League, have been a really bad example of it, if you look at Spurs' growth since, say, 2008, that is the mark of a club that knows what it's doing. They haven't been able to follow through on that and get right to the top of the Premier League. And in the last two years, they've obviously made lots of bad choices all at once and they've almost paid the ultimate price for it.

1:19:00Roger Bennett:West Ham are a different order of things. There is a sort of endemic ineptitude at West Ham that I think is a real problem because not only are they not trying smart things, when they do try them, they do them badly. And talking about doing it, that will do for us. Send us your messages, your questions, your everything, your hugs to meninblazers at gmail.com. We do try and answer them all. I'm off to Philadelphia in minutes. There's a car right outside tomorrow night. We're going to take the stage at Franklin Music Hall in the great city of brotherly love. Got some amazing guests. I can't wait.

1:19:38Super Bowl champion Eagle with the legendary voice of one and only Jordan Mailata. Also, the band Mount Joy. huge, huge Arsenal fans couple of tickets left come be with us and raise a glass in person we're then going to Dallas next week to the Long Haul Ballroom which looks extraordinary for a live World Cup countdown show which will kick off 22 days before the big one I can't wait to be back in the Lone Star State we're going to have an incredible night of points laughter and what I can say is both footballs Brandon Aubrey that incredible human being is going to be part of that one tickets for both shows found in the links and notes below.

1:20:16Come be with us for a night of energy, joy, positivity, warmth. I want to give huge thanks to Bank of America, official Bank of US Soccer and the FIFA World Cup 2026 for supporting the Men in Blazers media network. Discover what's possible in sports and in life. What would you like the power to do? Where are you off to this week, Will?

1:20:35Roger Bennett:I'll tell you what, Rog, I'm excited this week. I'm excited because I am going on Saturday to Glasgow for Celtic against Hearts. which should, it could change, but it should be a game that decides the Scottish title. It might be a game that sees the Scottish title leave Glasgow for the first time in 41 years. It would, I think, and I mean no disrespect to Arsenal fans, if Hearts were to win the lead in Scotland, that would be by far the biggest story in British football this season. I'm really hoping it comes to pass, Rog. God bless Lugan Roy, what an owner he is of Hearts. Or is it Hibs to you?

1:21:12to the great friend of the pods. We've got Clint Dempsey and Jeremy Doku joining us this week. Roo and I will be back on Friday. Let's not take a second of watching football together for granted. Big love and courage.