Arsenal's Quadruple chase, Tottenham's managerial speed dating, and appreciating Mo Salah: Men in Blazers 02/16/26

28:09Actually looked like his inner organs were slowly being boiled just by being at Tottenham, just seeing the joy completely singed out of him, lost like Ned Stark at King's Landing. You know, I compared him on Friday to a donor organ rejected by the host body. Yes, undermined by a cruel injury list, but he lost the fans almost instantly with the style of football. It seemed like only centre-backs were allowed to score. And the club became under him less Dr. Tottenham. I mean, they were like Médecins Sans Frontières Spurs. That's what they were. It felt like if you feel that a team were like Hippocrates, Alexander Fleming and Jonas Salt, they couldn't be more medically adept than Dr.

28:48Tottenham were under Thomas Frank. There was an article in the Times this week saying something like, I mean, everyone laughed at it, ridiculed it. Thomas Frank should be the most in-demand manager in football. His future remains bright, even after being sacked by Tottenham. Social media destroyed that. But Frank, he will be OK, right? I mean, he is a man who can still do wonders in mid-sized clubs. He can overachieve with his marginal edge, kind of defensive football. It's just not big six aspirational. Yeah, if you look around the Premier League, there should be at least two kind of those mid-range clubs who come up this summer, Fulham and Crystal Palace.

29:25We know Oliver Glasner's going, Marco Silva's contract's up. I think Thomas Frank could easily get either of those jobs and do extremely well at them. That seems to be something that we know he is good at. I guess the question for him is, do you kind of stick with the Premier League? Do you take a mid-range Premier League club and see if you can do what you did with Brentford, but maybe get into Europe? Or do you go abroad and say, well actually I reckon I could take charge of Borussia Dortmund or Marseille or you know kind of a much bigger scale club and try and prove that I can do well in the Champions League.

29:57I think both paths will be open to Thomas Frank this year. I think he'll want a job where he can beat Spurs twice a season. Just bet he might. But I will say as an Everton fan looking at a club just repeat cycles of ritualistic pain in our age of content, content, content. Just their cadence of sacking managers after torturing them. singularly and repeatable arcs. It's almost like a kink for Tottenham Hotspur. I mean, I look at it and I'm like, oh my God, I ache for you. I also had the dream roar, which I woke up, I wrote it down because it feels so true. I think Arna Slott's going to be ultimately a great Spurs manager in about two seasons' time.

30:35Going to be amazing there. Around the same time, Tierno Barry's banging him 15 goals a season for Leeds. Yeah, well, I think Spurs looked at Slott for one of their managerial appointments. There have been so many, it's hard to tell. Maybe before Poster Coddlew, he might have been the one they wanted before Bostokodlu so yeah that wouldn't shock me at all if Arna Slott at some point in his career ends up as Spurs manager I think that like I say Everton Spurs parallel is really telling because Everton really feel the burden of their history in the sense that the position they occupy in modern football, in the economics of modern football just means that a lot of Everton fans live with this permanent sense of dissatisfaction and I think Spurs have a version of that as well that Spurs are the 5th or 6th richest, biggest club in English football who desperately want to be the first or second richest biggest club in English football but that's really hard you've got five teams ahead of you who've all got more money than you and it means that they're trapped in this kind of purgatory that they can't ever really escape from which means that everything you do whatever you achieve feels like it's not quite enough and I think it's in that environment you make bad decisions.

31:38Welcome to Purgatory Spurs fans, good news, it's not hell. Well, it kind of is in its own way. By the way, Spurs would never appoint Arnazlaut out of the blue. They would only appoint Arnazlaut as a discard from a bigger club and say, oh, he's a title winner, he's coming here. It's what they do. It's like the whole cycle of Chelsea discards that they've always taken on. It's genuine. I woke up, it's one of those dreams where I woke up and said, that could be a reality and a hoop for both Arna and for Tottenham down the line that it's joyful. By the way, Spurs, not the only club making a change.

32:11God bless you, Nottingham Forest fans. I hate for you over the weekend. Forest confirmed the appointment of Vitor Pereira as their fourth head coach of the season. Came in on an 18-month deal. The former Wolves manager takes over from Sean Dyche, who was sacked on Thursday. What a dumpster fire Forest had become. To recap, Nuno lasted 24 days this season. Big Ange arrived with a giant Greek vibe full of like Yasu, and then was gone. Totally lost after 40 days. I guess in that context, Deitch's, what was it, 114 days? Feels like a forever. But sacking three head coaches raw in a season is just like a nasty case of footballing autocracy.

32:52We've got to remember, all of this is self-inflicted. We also have to remember a year ago, this team were running into the Champions League spots under Nino. Chris Wood was just a darling, unstoppable. They're back in Europe, though. Joy was theirs. and now they're the first Premier League side to have four permanent managers in a season ever, which is a madness. One place, three points above the relegation zone. Vito Pereira going to need a lot of both the points and the pints to get to this one, Roar. There was a great tweet from over the Forest announcement when it was done. How many managers can you have in one season before you stop being delighted to announce them?

33:29To a point, were they genuinely delighted to announce Vito Pereira or were they sort of resentful, resigned and slightly confused by what was happening? I suppose these are the two sides of Evangelos Maranakis' zona, that you see the ambition in taking Forrest to the cusp of the Champions League last season, getting them back into Europe, but then also you see the rashness. Does this all start when Nuno seems to have fallen out or to have decided that he didn't like the presence of Edu, who is the director of football operations, I think, for the entire Maranakis group, which encompasses not just Forest but Olympiacos in Greece and a team in Portugal.

34:06I think if that doesn't happen, then Nottingham Forest are not 17th in the Premier League table in mid to late February. And if you look at their squad, both the depth of it and the quality of the first team in particular, it's ridiculous that they are that low down. And Ange was clearly on the rebound. That was very obviously a man who had not healed. He'd not done the work, Rog. He didn't need to be in another job. He needed to be on a beach somewhere. Or on the couch speaking to a trained professional. Ange needed time off. Ange really obviously needed time off. And he bounced into Forrest because he was determined to prove himself again, which I understand as an impulse, but was very clearly not healthy.

34:48Deitch, I thought, would be better than this. And I know we disagree on this, Rog. I thought Deitch, with the quality of player at Forrest, might be able to show that he wasn't just the coach that we saw at Burnley and at Everton. But he has failed to do that. It sounds like from a lot of the reporting, he failed to win over the players in the squad. His reputation maybe has come before him. And now you're on Pereira, who has had this kind of long and slightly journeyman career around various outposts. Is there an Italian word for it? There will definitely be an Italian word for it, but you would need Horncastle on to tell you what it is.

35:24but do you not think that appointing Vitor Pereira at this stage is very much saying we'd quite like, you might as well hire someone called new manager bounce because that's the plan the plan is let's get a new manager bounce New manager bounce would be a brilliant name for a dog and that dog might do well in charge of Nottingham Forest it's hard to say, you might as well at some point give it to a dog but there's no plan here there's no plan beyond when he took over at Wolves roughly this time last year They won lots of games in a row. Let's see if he can do that again at Forest. And I think that is an absolute kind of damning indictment of where strategy is at Nottingham Forest at the moment.

36:02God bless that. White Leaf Eagle tweeted, good news, it's only five Nottingham Forest managers until Christmas.

36:13To the FA Cup magic. And let's start at Arsenal. The Gunners 4, Wigan Athletic 0. Wigan Athletic, that essentially football in caution retail. They won the FA Cup in 2013. Same year they were relegated. They now find themselves shivering in the relegation zone of League One, third tier, having fired their manager, just League Six against Peterborough, into Arsenal. Mikel Arteta rested eight. Still an incredibly strong team. Madweke, Jesus Martinelli up front. William Saliba started at the back. Saka in, also after Cali Fiori injured himself in the warm-ups. Quadruple hunting, demands of a robust starting line-up.

36:55Wigan, midway between Manchester and Liverpool, another industrial heritage city with deep coal mining and textile routes, probably best captured by their highlight of the weekend roar. Krusty, the Wigan pie mascot, doing the 6-7 before kick-off. Yeah, which I think, as the Men in Blazers Instagram account posted, that might be the most 2026 thing that has happened. So far, my son informed me just the other day that 6 '7 is now banned at his school because it is so annoying. Is it really? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Detentionable. I don't know if it's detentionable, but they've banned it at quite a lot of schools because it's really irritating.

37:33So to see a mascot doing it, I'm not sure this is the sort of thing we should be encouraging, Rog, to be honest. By the way, the Wigert, Krusty and Gunasaurus had a penalty shootout at halftime, which also probably got more coverage in the game. did seem highly unfair. Seeing as Krusty, the Piemask has tiny, tiny, tiny little pincer arms. And Gunnasaurus has like huge, huge, I mean, just like Jordan Pickford would bite your arm off to have Gunnasaurus arms. And a tail. Yes. I mean, God, bloody hell. Man, can you imagine the first goalkeeper that evolves into having a tail? That would be amazing.

38:09For the Panenka, you could safely dive like very far to the right and then swish it away like Jordan Pickford against Columbia with your trailing tail. But I'm getting away from myself. From an Arsenal perspective, the game was all about Eberichie. He spent the week under the microscope of the media, yanked at half-time against Brentford, struggled for playing time in a deeply swollen squad. Ten minutes in, took control of the ball near the centre circle and just saw time and space with a beautiful mind, bisecting, I think, six Wigan defenders to three Madweke, who finished incredibly smartly.

38:44Roar, Eze in FA Cup is like Ronaldinho. Yeah, it really seems to bring the best out of him. It's a competition he has good reason to love, Rog. I'm a little bit more upbeat on Eze than quite a lot of people. He played a lot more football before Christmas than he normally does or than he is used to. I've got a feeling that Arteta's just managing his minutes. We saw this at City frequently in those kind of peach Guardiola years where an attacking player in particular would be in this incredible vein of form and then they'd just sort of disappear for a bit. And we always took it to be, I don't know, a sign that Pep didn't want to share the limelight or that the defensive work was more important than the attacking output.

39:24But I think it's to do with managing their workload. Mikel Arteta will know that he needs Ebreche as a fully fit, firing, on form for the running, especially if they want to keep competing on four fronts. So he's given him a couple of months where his workload has been lighter. So I think that might just be good management. You know, it's fascinating to watch him. I took him at him in one second. I did love in that moment the response to the goal. The Wigan fans sang, it's only 1-0. It's only 1-0. How crap must you be? It's only 1-0. A chant, I think, that normally precedes unfortunate events.

39:58It was in this case, because two minutes later, it would be two. Eze again took possession of the ball, immediately stroked it stunningly into the path. What a weight on that ball into the path of Martinelli. kind of pass that you just knew he knew he was going to play before the ball even came to him again Martinelli finished smartly that man 10 goals in the FA Cup and Champions League this season which is its own kind of magic Eze we do know proper hates Spurs and Wigan that's the only scientific proof we can take from this there are doubts now about Odegaard's fitness came out against Wolves on Wednesday Kai Havertz expected to miss I think at least is it four games of a muscle injury, it will be an incredible time for AJ to return.

40:42Yeah, we've got the rematch with Tottenham next weekend, so the poetry, the symmetry of that is stunning. There is no doubt watching him at all that this is a creative visionary. There's also, though, the sense amongst some Arsenal fans, he's not kind of the, what do you call them, like a dual winner. I think that's the term that we use now. And that we do know Arteta craves that. Given the choice, control over everything for that man. So do you see, do you understand, can you see a pathway? Again, I love Eze, I want to be completely clear and I'll talk about him in one moment, but does he fall on the wrong side just inherently of Mikel Arteta's risk and reward equation?

41:22I suppose the worry is that he might end up being kind of an Arsenal Grealish, that he's a player who goes to a title-chasing club where the manager wants control, as you say, which I think is absolutely right, who has this kind of magic in his mind and these twinkling feet and this streak of individualism that is either coached out of him to get him into the team or is not coached out of him and he eventually falls out of favour. That is the worry that we are functioning with with Eze, that you're going to lose something as Grealish did at City. The Jack Grealish who went to City compared to the Jack Grealish who ended up at Manchester City, apart from that, he had that golden period in the team during the travel winning year, but he didn't look like, he wasn't nearly as much fun essentially and Eze ultimately is a fun footballer to watch.

42:13I think there is an element of that with Arteta. I suspect that over the course of the last few months he has been trying to drill into Eze that there's certain areas where you do certain things and there's certain areas where you do not do certain things because that doesn't fit in with, because ultimately Arteta's vision of how football should be has to come first in his mind. But I think what you say about injuries is central to it that Odegaard at this moment does seem to have an ability to pick up these slight strains and stresses which means he's not always in the team every week 60 games a season.

42:44Havertz is coming back from a really long-term injury so he will be up and down for a while and Eze will get the chance to play when they are not there and if he takes those chances then he'll stay in the team even when they're back. That's I think how it works. Arsenal, as we've said, slightly, sarcastically are competing on four fronts. They want to try and win four trophies. There's going to come a point where they are playing in the Premier League and have to win every week because City are on their tail. There's going to come a point where they're in an FA Cup quarterfinal, which they will have to win.

43:14They'll have the Champions League. They will have the Carabao Cup final. There's plenty of opportunities. I think Arteta has protected Eze a little bit to make sure he's ready for them. All he has to do, I guess, is take them and he'll get more of those opportunities if Odegaard and Havertz aren't there. Yeah, we have a film with Ebereche launching this week, February 19th. I went to North London to play chess against Ebs just before Christmas. Talked about his love for the club, how he understands his incredible tenacious return to Arsenal. We talked about his style of football, his street roots, where it comes from.

43:51Also his faith. And it's really, really beautiful because, to be clear, he's such a rare, noble soul. drops on our YouTube on Thursday. Just enjoy it because he is an incredible man. After that, the delusion, own goal, leaving Wigan's goalkeeper, Sam Tickle. Mr. Tickle, don't get us started on Mr. Tickle, how we feel about it. It was non-consent before we even knew what that was. But Tickle exposed. No, God, I thought it was excellent here. Free Jesus to make it four inside 27 minutes. And that was at Wigan, a team 68 places below Arsenal. essentially played like it. Arsenal got to shut down the second half.

44:31It was all about could Eze get his goal. Answer, sadly no. But for the first time since they won it in 2020, Arteta's mob are through to the FA Cup fifth round. That dream of the quadruple, a fantasy of the quadruple as we know it, lives on. And Roy, you said something fascinating, I think 10 days ago. A YouTube commenter did not like it. You said the quadruple, essentially you said these are not your words, but you said it's like a fever dream illusion. These are your words. You said the closer you get to it, the harder it becomes. Can you explain what you meant? Because someone underneath was like, statistically, that can't be true.

45:07But I do believe it is almost like a Trump Deloitte, like a deception, a quadruple that we're trying to see with our own eyes. Yeah, I think the problem is that as you close in on it, say Arsenal win the Carabao Cup and get through to the FA Cup, quarterfinals maybe semis it'll depend a little bit on the calendar and then you're kind of progressing in the champions league that each of those games not only has its own stakes resting on it but the states of the entire quadruple because you have to those are knockout games it's not you're trying to win four leads where you get to kind of be the best consistently over the course of a season you may well find that you're you're in an fa cup semi-final against trying to think who's still in the fa cup sunderland but suddenly that's not we've got to beat sunderland and we know we can do that because we're better than Sunderland, is we've got to beat Sunderland as if we don't, the entire quadruple falls apart.

45:59That pressure makes each of those games so stressful and so meaningful, so kind of significant, that it ends up effectively increasing the size of the challenge. It magnifies the challenge of each match. So the lead remains the same because you have to beat everybody twice, that's fine. But the Champions League becomes inordinately stressful and that's already very stressful. Same with the FA Cup. The Carabao Cup, because it's the first one, is a little bit different. But I think the nearer you get as you're battling the fatigue, as you're kind of dealing with a lactic acid build-up, you're also dealing with this increasing pressure on every single moment of your season that you could do something impossible.

46:38And all I would say is that every time anyone's tried it, they break. So that's why I believe that the closer you get, the harder it is. But then I did also say, Rog, that I genuinely think being in a position this late in the season where people can start saying, will they do the quadruple? Which they're saying partly so they can criticise you when you don't. That in itself is an achievement as it shows how consistent you've been. So there is an element of, Arsenal should take pride, even if they don't do the quadruple, that they've got as close as anybody has ever come. Lactaid acid of the brain always does you in.

47:14By the way, if anybody is going to do the quadruple, it would be this Arsenal squad. The depth, the options, the tactical flexibility Ultimately, the legs, the replacement legs. I mean, it is utterly fascinating. Do not let the noise drown out your joy, Arsenal fans. Save every single second. I think what we're watching is utterly magnificent. Also magnificent on the day to Liverpool three. Brighton nil for the under-pressure manager, Classico. Your fallen ball king on a slot and flailing child warrior. Fabian Herzl are both falling out of the love of large sections of their team's fan bases. It was an absorbing clash.

47:53It was open. It was chance-filled. Many in the first half felt a Mo Salah. Took a little time to calibrate deep inside his own head. Brighton's last win was of any kind. It was actually in their third-round FA Cup win at Manchester United, which kind of tells you where they are right now. But once Liverpool up their intensity, as they have in games recent, the bright, fragile Seagulls just couldn't live with them. 42nd minute, live-wire Kerkhez, who was so intelligent in this game and his decisions of when to stay and when to go. Real progress there. Carved down the left. Flicked an arch cross, zipping back across the face of goal.

48:30Met by fellow fullback. I love fullback to fullback goals. They are the best. Curtis Jones on this day. And he kind of short-hopped it home entrepreneurially. First goal of the season. Fierce Scouser in the team, Roar. Man yet to sign a new contract. Fighting for playing time. and his future quite oddly out of nowhere and certain role. I mean, he's a sumptuous footballer. More than that, he's got that true dogged kind of mentality when Liverpool have needed it. Yeah, he's been a really significant figure this season, Curtis Jones. There were certain performances where when Liverpool's form was really bad, when Curtis Jones kind of suggested he was the way home, he was the one who could get onto the ball, he could set the tempo, he could inject a little bit of swagger into a Liverpool team that had none of it.

49:16I get why he's maybe dilly-dallying slightly over signing a new contract that at the stage he's at in his career you know he's played 200 times for his his childhood club I think he would want to stay but he'll be looking at it and thinking well I don't know if I necessarily want to be kind of first midfield reserve could I go somewhere else and be be first choice and I think that's true he could but at the same time I think from a Liverpool perspective to lose him would be devastating the idea of a Liverpool team without a single scouser in it is even to a Liverpool fan who's not a scouser, is something I find slightly worrying.

49:48It doesn't feel right to have a really talented scouse footballer and have them not playing for at least one of the two teams. And Curtis Jones isn't in a sign for Everton. So it would be a real shame to see him go, even if I kind of understand why he might think he has to. It doesn't feel right. I mean, it really, really doesn't. In this one, so much did go right. though Brighton had their chances lacked conviction in key moments also luck on occasion Liverpool punished them quite superbly 56 minutes gag post smash forward Salah took down the diagonal with the touch of a tender lover into Sobber Slay's path and he just went full on Peter Gabriel's sledgehammer a really stunning collective goal finished by a player who reached double figures for the first time in his career each of Sobber Slay's goals seems to be more of a banger than the last Last slot said post-game, he's one of the best players in the world.

50:45Linked Rumour Mill to Real Madrid. Raw, among the best players in the world, that kind of ether. I mean, on current form, I see no light. Yeah, it's very much weirdly for someone who's 25 and captain of his country, it feels like it's been a breakthrough season for Sabah's light. Not in the sense that Liverpool fans always knew how good he could be, but it's this season that he's been the defining feeder in Liverpool's team. He's the only player apart from Ekotike who's maybe been beyond reproach this season but I think for the wider footballing public it's the season where Sabah's really come to their attention.

51:20He scores spectacular goals, he gives Liverpool huge amounts of energy he can kind of do everything, he can play in different roles. It's been the season where he maybe gets the credit, the broader credit that he deserves that he's not always had. yeah then a truly significant moment Mo Salah wriggled like a little eel down the wing cut in to the box bodied one defender invited a second in to ultimately be seen to foul him it was a really lovely moment there's no doubt Mo's skills are in decline that his time with us is running down in the Premier League but you see you see a move like that sizzling football born of godly gifts and you just savor it even more in the dying embers.

52:06There's only going to be one penalty taker. Mo stepped up, thrashed it into the corner. The celebration rule, signalling to Liverpool faithful that he's beating his heart. On one hand, it was Valentine's Day. On another, I know Mo lost his grandfather who passed away last week. Had Jammed Abdelaziz al-Bambi in Egypt. Another layer to Liverpool's emotional season of moments continues. But he also looked like a gentleman savouring every last goal in front of the Anfield faithful. Almost as if this is his last dance we're witnessing together, we've got to enjoy every single last minute we have with him like he's enjoying it with us.

52:44Yeah, it's hard not to read that into that celebration, which is something he's done. He did it after he started against Carabao as well, which I think is his only other goal since he came back from AFCON, since the unpleasantness. Watching Sala is still to see what's not there more than what is, I think. It's really obvious that he's not himself. in some very key way. His finishing remains haywire. I think that's probably right to say. If you actually watch a lot of Liverpool's games back over the last few weeks since he came back from AFCON, he's had quite a lot of chances and not taken any of them.

53:19And you're waiting and waiting and waiting for something to click. The speed won't ever be quite what it was. But the touch should come back. There's no reason he should have lost that. The eye for goal should come back. there's no reason he should have lost that. He's not in his 80s, he's in his early 30s. He's got time left as a footballer. But he seems to be finding it harder than I think anyone would have imagined. I've always had this feeling that he needs one to go in and then suddenly everything will kind of, all the problems will melt away and he'll be back to himself. But he's stored against Carabao and it's not improved things.

53:52He's stored a really good goal against Carabao and it's not improved things. Maybe winning the penalty and converting the penalty against Brighton will be that moment. but on the evidence of the last month or so, probably not. What I would say is I think his presence has made Liverpool better. His presence back in the team has coincided in such a way with Liverpool's return to some sort of form that it's hard not to think the two are related. For Liverpool, dominant performance, clean sheet two. Post-game, Curtis Jones talked about the team's goal for the season to win the FA Cup and the Champions League.

54:26Slott also talked up about how the team's future looks bright Les Bright, Brighton's woeful form. Herzl aside, have dropped from fifth in the Premier League at the beginning of December to 14th. They're seven points above the doom spots. One win now in the last 13 games in the league. Godspeed to you, you child warrior. Talking about unexpected managers, oh wonder. Hull City nil, Chelsea four. You were there, Roar. Snow and rain, driving in off the Humber in that strange northern town hall. hometown to my favorite poet, Philip Larkin, who called it, quote, what a hole, what a witless, crappulous people.

55:05When I read that, I realize I don't use the word crappulous enough. Back returned to Hull, Liam Roussinha, to the clubby coach for 18 months, who a modicum of success before being fired. A bit like watching Reese Witherspoon's character in Sweet Home Alabama go home. Ultimately, clinical win, despite mean level open goal misses from Estevão and poor Liam De Lapp. who actually had three assists, but was just laughed at because of his one blown chance. No player has ever screamed more loan to Everton louder than Liam De Lapp. Ultimately, second half blowout. First ever Neto hat-trick after Resinia started him as a number 10 to boot, and perhaps just a significantly third clean sheet in 11 games under Resinia.

55:46You were there, Roar. Start with the football, Forest, button it up. Yeah, it was a slightly strange 4-0 win because the first goal came just as you thought Hull, are causing Chelsea some problems here. They were starting to kind of drag them down to their level. Sounds harsh. But Chelsea had made this really strong start and Hull weathered it. And then it seemed as though Hull were asserting themselves. And you thought actually maybe Hull could make a game of this and Chelsea might have a problem. Then they scored one and I think the second goal going through the goalkeeper's legs direct from the corner.

56:18I think that really stuppered Hull's self-confidence. And from that moment on it became this very I'm going to say boring procession in which we all had to watch 40-ish minutes of football where we knew what the outcome was before we could get to the main event, which is Liam Rossini talking to the media. Yeah, you said this to me. I mean, it was fascinating hearing Rossini. Last week talked about the agony his family are going through, the battering he's taking on social media. There was a truly insane post last week, by the way, which I did think about when I read this. Somebody had found the photograph of him standing in front of the step and repeat of sponsors behind him.

56:54And they were hypothesizing that because there was no warping of the sponsors' logos through his glasses lenses, they were like, he only wears vanity glasses to look smarter. I mean, this is where we are now. But the results were all, what is it? Eight wins, one draw, two losses to Chelsea in the Carabao Cup. But you said to me, journalists are essentially going to Chelsea games for the press conference. It's become a blood sport. yeah there's a real fascination in seeing how he will what he'll say what he'll do he's become a character liam rosenia i think that is is a potentially a really good thing for him that can work in your favor or it can be an incredibly bad thing because people are waiting for you to to say something that is newsworthy which generally is a negative adjective i think that's probably fair to say you know say something that that you wouldn't normally hear somebody else say yeah when you say love will conquer hate no one really yeah yeah give us something different you're not writing about that but what was interesting on on friday night after the whole game it had been quite a positive experience for a senior i think not just because of the win but because he got a lot of affection from the crowd at hall there was they sang his name three or four times which is three or four more times than the chelsea fans did um they obviously still have a lot of you know a lot of kind of love for liam rossini at hall who did he did a really good job there when he was sacked in 2024 I think it was a genuine surprise the club's owner Akronilakali has said said before the tie that he didn't regret the thing absolutely the right decision but the crowd obviously remember what Rossini did for them and they they signed his name in the first half then several times in the second and he he acknowledged each one with a little wave and I think it was nice for him to be in in an environment where he was appreciated even if it was the the opposition fans who appreciated him and the press conference i think was testament to the fact that rosenia has is starting to understand what bits play well and what bits really don't play well and that's not to say there's there's anything wrong with the way that he sees the world or the you know the stuff he wants to say or the stuff that he sincerely believes it's a little bit kind of linkedin jargon for me but if he wants to believe it and it's authentic it's not a problem but it's so hard but I think he's worked out that there's certain things like there's no no one has a sense of humour though English football is not covered with a sense of humour so when he said the thing about Estevão not thinking he was a professional footballer because of his first touch when he tried to control the ball that's quite a good line that's a good joke like that is the sort of thing if you were with your friends you'd be like yeah that guy couldn't believe it couldn't believe I was a professional footballer that touch was so bad it's self-deprecating it's quite charming I mean, but it doesn't sound like it isn't presented like that when you put it through the lens of a media that is just hunting for anything to make people angry, anything to make people outraged.

59:46It's not just a media rule. I mean, we've got to dig a bit deeper here because he is. I said on Friday, Rosinia is in this strange no-win place where all he does is win. His record's incredible, but every game remains a must-win because as soon as he stumbles, that tabloid press pack are going to eviscerate him. He knows that they know that he knows that they know. The English people cannot allow him to be left untouched. We can't exist happily in our own lives while he's doing okay at Chelsea. No, we've got to bring him down. We have to for our own dignity and self-respect because there's that old Steve Coogan quote, which I've talked about a lot on this show.

1:00:20If you give an English person the choice between their own success and your failure, they'll choose your failure every single time. And Liam was actually asked about this this week, was it? It was put to him that it was a bit weird that there's been such a negative response to, first of all, his record. And the fact he's a young English manager showing real green shoots of success. And he said, I agree with what you're saying. I'll leave it at that. And then he was pushed a bit more saying, is it down to British culture, Liam? And he just said, I'm not going to go into that. People make their own judgments on people before they meet them.

1:00:59That's part of life. the thought that's occurred to me, Rog, is that I wonder whether he comes across as too clever that might be the one thing, that is something that is really dangerous I think in British culture that, especially in football culture maybe that if people think you're a bit of a smart arse their natural instinct is to try and find ways in which you should not think that and I wonder whether, obviously he's not wearing vanity glasses, but you know he is even in the press conference on Friday he used the word exemplified perfectly naturally literally which is fine because he's a he's a smart guy like he knows he knows the word exemplified it's not that big a word i wonder whether there is a little bit of not jealousy is maybe not quite the right word but a sort of sense of oh you're you know you're you and you've not really achieved anything yet you seem to be quite self-confident we don't like that let's see if we can let's see what we can do about that and admittedly look there are ways that he's not helped himself the the aging men thing that's an unfortunate thing to say like liam rossini you probably just has to own that.

1:01:55That's not... About management. Yeah. Breaking down, you know, in English, the word manage is man age. I mean, that's not... By the way, I did spend it, because of him, I spent all the time thinking that the root of FA Cup is fack up. And I couldn't stop thinking about it. So thank you, Liam. I'm not sure. He's a good coach. I'm not sure he's a great etymologist, if I'm honest. So there's a couple of things where you can say he's maybe not helped himself. I think that's fair enough to say. but there seems to be a sense in which the media, yeah, are maybe looking for things like, can we make him say something weird?

1:02:31That's probably a game that people are playing subconsciously. But I don't think it's just a media thing, Rog. I think it's fans as well. I think fans see a manager who comes in, he's very young, his experience doesn't seem that relevant to the job that he's got. We've been taught for a long time that you need a big character, a big Mourinho. You know, Mourinho is the modern ideal of a manager in the Premier League. Still, maybe Pep or Mourinho, someone of that kind of ilk. Someone who can use balls as an adjective, adverb, and the perfect tense of, just for everything. But also someone who's got this incredible CV, who's worked at the biggest clubs, who has this kind of magnetic, larger-than-life, quite shouty personality.

1:03:10And Rossini doesn't fit that, and I think that there is a tendency among fans to be, I mean, sceptical is probably the politest word, isn't it? To remain sceptical of that until they see a reason not to be. I do believe football will essentially have completed itself when Liam Rosinia leans into a microphone at a press conference and just announces that he is not going to get his hair cut until he experiences five press conferences where the press don't try and take the piss out of him. surely the end of the Rossini narrative arc is that he wins a quadruple with Chelsea and in his final press conference he just says I have aged these men that is the way that this ends it's self-referential it's an in joke people won't get it at that point people will decide this guy's quite a good coach yeah consider yourself aged man I love it I love it I love it like a good Gouda.

1:04:08Very quickly, Manchester City 2, Salford City 0, four-tier Salford City, industrial borough of Manchester, made famous as an industrial cradle, home to the Salford Lads Club, pictured on the Smiths, the Queen is Dead album cover, I think their first ever appearance in the fourth round, that's a team you may know owned by the Manchester United class of 92, you know, your Neville brothers, your book, your gigs, your Sir David Beckham, they actually got further, We should note that Manchester United in the FA Cup this season. It was an odd game. Solford had trained by training 11 against 14 all week to simulate what it would feel like.

1:04:48And after bending and breaking pretty quickly to a six-minute home goal, they did pretty well. Withstood 85 % City first-half possession. Took an 80th-minute goal from Mark Gahey, first as a City player, to kill the tie-off in a very, very dull game. I think Pep himself called City's performance, quote, boring with his own language. The talking point coming out of this was a quietly seething James Trafford, the young Manchester City goalkeeper who had arrived for$42 million in the summer, then buried instantly alive by the arrival of Donnarumma unexpectedly in September, 23 years of age, finding his career very much in a cul-de-sac, unexpectedly raw, blindsided, medically didn't come to sit on the bench and play cup ties.

1:05:34this game was like both proof of life for him and also kind of like a come and get me plea to big clubs because I hate it here. Yeah, he's been left, and I think this is widely accepted, he's been left in a really difficult position by the fact that City decided to go for Donnarumma relatively late in the day in the summer. It's hard to know whether Trafford is there this time next year, whether he sees out the summer as a City player because 23, he would have been in England's World Cup squad, I think. he might still be it might be that Thomas Fickle decides to take him but he will want to play first team football he will see himself as a Premier League goalkeeper and he will also be aware that there are lots of English players who've gone to City and it's not really worked out for them Grealish is one example but the more telling one is Calvin Phillips who a lot of people may have forgotten but went to City as an international and disappeared because he wasn't really didn't really fit the system I'd be surprised if James Trafford isn't in some way conscious of that example Godspeed, James Trafford Aston Villa 1, Newcastle 3 Tuna failed to break down Aston Villa's backline in two previous games this season they did so on repeat in this one thanks really to Villa's self-destruction 2-1 Mr Mariko Bizot but we didn't know that at the outset Tammy Abraham opened the scoring for Villa first goal for him back at the club since he netted in 2019 a really fine instinctual finish, but it was offside.

1:07:04A throwback to the more rose-tinted days pre-Var. No VAR in this round. There will be in the next one, Raw. I do need to ask you, there was no review. The goal stood. A number of dodgy decisions here. Alan Shearer on the English broadcast made it sound like things got about as heated in this one as a curling game between Canada and Sweden. He said, if you ever needed any evidence of the damage VAR's done to the referees, I think today's a great example of that. These guys, meaning the referees, look petrified to make a decision today because they didn't have a comfort blanket for me. They're actually getting worse.

1:07:39These are damning words, Roy. It was funny, like seeing the nostalgia of Vala's football, which we've often cried out for and realising just how random and slot-filled much of the decision was before it. Seriously, quickly, did you miss it? No, not at all. I think that there's no question that there were lots and lots of strange decisions in this game and it wasn't a great advert for just letting people referee by themselves. The offside is one. The Luka Dean non-penalty was extraordinary. That was a genuinely, staggeringly bad decision. and I do think Shearer's got a little bit of a point that I wonder if referees who are used to having VAR, if they now officiate in a certain way because they know that decisions can be backed up by VAR.

1:08:26So if you're going to be wrong, I think there's probably a certain way it's better to be wrong than the other way around. So maybe with the Dean handball, he thought, okay, well, I'll give a free kick. There's part of him thinking I'll give the free kick and it'll get overturned if it's in the area, but there's no VAR, so it's just a free kick. and I think that is a factor that if you make referees who are used to VAR referee without it they might be worse at it that that is logical to me but I've got to admit I would tolerate that those honest mistakes that were made in that game over the five six seven minute delays to find a micro infraction to prevent it all being scored I think that is nonsense I where would football be without fans waving cash by the var machine I I mean, it's just, oh, it's why we watch.

1:09:11The one thing that VAR has given football is that everyone now knows this gesture. And if you look in the crowd, whenever a goal is scored, you will see someone making little bots with their fingers. It's extraordinary. Good man, good man. It is amazing, that impulse. I mean, it's almost impossible to resist. Also hard to resist, Newcastle. 15 seconds before halftime. Villa's second string goalkeeper, Michael Bizot, in a rare star, headlessly crashed, kung fu fighting style, into Jacob Murphy. Terrible, terrible knee-high challenge. It was just wanton. It was more like just, this is the FA Cup, just like sod it.

1:09:48I have no idea what Bezo was doing. It was an extraordinary... Just as you don't see referees giving free kicks for things that are obviously penalties anymore. You definitely don't see goalkeepers doing that. I mean, that was something that you used to see a lot in the 90s. It's the FA Cup, I'm on one. It was just like so unbelievably wildly unsyncopated, uncalibrated. Down to 10 men, allowed Toon to take control, made their fans utterly delirious. Two strikes within 12 second half minutes, both from Sandro Tenaglia, a player who was rumoured to be on the move thanks to his agent essentially doing the rumour-mongering in January.

1:10:28First goal deflected, second, a stunning exclamation point drive. He even had the Nick Voldemar, the goal first since Christmas to kill off the game for German Yao Ming on his 24th birthday, no less. Incredible stat here, Roar. On the past five times these two teams have played, one of them has gone on to the final. Those who don't know history are doomed to be surprised at Newcastle. Shirtless fans will be belly deep in the Trafalgar Square Fountains come FA Cup final time. For now, Newcastle head 2 ,000 miles to Carabag, then to Manchester City in the Premier League. Even with Guy Maresh out for two months of hamstring that, there's lots for them to play for still in this very, very dank season.

1:11:13Yeah, there's been a really weird vibe around Newcastle all season because they have so much going for them. They've done incredibly well in the Champions League, or certainly as well as they might have expected in the Champions League. came really close to qualifying automatically. They're kind of in the midst of that great Premier League morass, which everybody's in, basically, apart from maybe Arsenal and Man City. Everyone's just in that big blob from kind of third to 15th. And yet there's been a real sense of dissatisfaction around Newcastle, a real sense that things have stalled, that Eddie Howe maybe is running out of time, running out of rope.

1:11:50And you sort of look at it and think, well, why? And there are questions, I think, around the Saudi ownership, whether they've delivered on their promises, whether they have lived up to the bar that they set. And I think the answer to those questions are no. But there's plenty left in this season for Newcastle. And when they are on it, as they were against Villa, thanks in part to Marco Bezo, they are really difficult to play days. And you wouldn't bet against them getting to the final with a decent draw. I'm going to say, Carabao winners last year, FA Cup challenges this year, I would bite your arm off to be as in Malays as Newcastle United are right now.

1:12:27We've got to very quickly talk about the shocko, the round Burnley one, Mansfield two, Mansfield town of League One, knocking out your Premier League strugglers, coming from behind to a team 37 places lower in the English football pyramid. God bless Burnley, just had the high of their first win against Palace in that it was 17 games in the Premier League, and then they burst their own bubble, played a weakened team. Felt like it was just going to be a routine win. But then Reese Oates, journeyman striker, equalised with a towering header and 28-year-old midfielder Lewis Reid took a walk on the wild side with a stunning free kick, 25 yards from goal, sending the Stags into the fifth round for the first time since 1975.

1:13:10This team founded in 1897. This is amazing. Highest they've ever been was one season in the second tier. They're currently 13th in the third tier, League One, owned by a local businessman, done good. Nigel Clough, the manager, son of legendary Brian Clough, gobsmacked himself on the sideline at the final. It's a coal mining and textile town. I think I've said that eight times at least this show, on the cusp of Sherwood Forest, but don't let the romance of that fool you. It's a proud town. It's a tough town, Raw. I've got to say, the money they will get, Raw,$325 ,000, I think, will come in so handy when they're balancing the books.

1:13:48This is lifeline money. Yeah and if you get far enough in the FA Cup even for a team in League 1 the amount of money you get in prize money can be genuinely transformative you know that is a huge amount of of Mansfield's budget for a month for a season if they get the sort of tie they want and the draw is a few hours after we record Rog if they could get the sort of tie they want and unfortunately just the way the money works in the FA Cup unfortunately that is a way to a big team that is the best thing they can hope for then that potentially is an amount of money that could change Mansfield's ambitions and horizons completely in the relatively near term.

1:14:26Boos from quite seething Burnley fans at the final whistle. Really a new low for them in a season unbearably full of them and it breaks my heart. I do love Burnley. I like Scott Parker too. He's a smart man. But he wasn't backed in the winter transfer window. their team are playing impotent football at this point. We talked last week about how many fans there are almost looking forward to return to the championship to see them win, which is where they are now, this yo-yo club, bouncing between leagues in this strange kind of cruel stasis where you're forever paused between the agony of the descent and then the false hope of the joy of promotion.

1:15:04Really a sordid torment. Godspeed to them. In other games, Wolves didn't get bogged down in the mud at Grimsby. The mud was battle of the bastard stick, if you saw this one. 1-1-0, brought a modicum of joy to a dank season. Southampton beat Leicester in the cautionary tale derby. West Ham outclassed Burton Albion, the Brewers of League One, in their 6 ,912 Pirelli dual box away stadium. Somerville netted. That man is single-handedly. He's almost having a Carlos Tevez saving West Ham kind of season. and Wrexham beat Ipswich 1-0 into the FA Cup last 16 for the first time in 29 years. Incredible.

1:15:43Another magical night Friday in a period of unprecedented success for the Red Dragons, their deepest cup run since 1997 to go with the current promotion push. I just love it. Every single moment I'm manifesting. Oh, a game against Arsenal for them at the Stoke Kairas. Was there another game that caught your eye, Roar? Yeah, well, we mentioned on Friday that Birmingham Leeds was a good old-fashioned kind of, in 1980s, two teams with violent reputations for their hooligan firms, Derby. And it kind of lived up to that. The pitch was not great. And I feel, as I said at the start, very sorry for kind of British football's ground staff at the moment.

1:16:24What was disappointing about it, and obviously I'm delighted Leeds got through because Leeds' record in the FA Cup is really not very good either. It always feels to me slightly wrong when the smaller team equalises late and then loses on penalties. It feels as though something has gone very bad. It's very unsatisfying. You get your moment of kind of release and wonder and hope and joy and then actually just get beaten on penalties by the better team anyway. That always feels like a bit of a letdown to me, Rog. Yeah, it was. It's a stunning moment when I think the fleeting Manchester City winger, Patrick Roberts, off a thick deflection, got Birmingham, by the way, worthily back into the tie in the dying embers.

1:17:06It did go to penalties. It was an amazingly entertaining tilt. Massively open. Leeds survived with some quite ruthless penalties. But I'll say Birmingham's quality also showed in this one. Tom Brady came onto our Instagram post-game and I think he just wrote a very long F-word just exhaling, venting his frustration. I did love Ethan Ampadu, by the way, on the post-game show of the match who was asked where he was going to be in the penalty shootout, and he answered quite honestly. He said 11th. God bless. Birmingham principal owner, American investor Tom Wagner, who's been on this show. Godspeed to him.

1:17:44He had a stroke last week, age 56, said to be recovering. Listeners, just look after yourself. Save it every single moment you have around football together. Raw, let's finish with the MIB mailbag. I love this letter this week. It's on theme from the FA Cup, from the mighty Roger Avils, from the great city of Minneapolis. He's one of the good Rogers. Take it away, Rob. He says, Dear Roger and Rory, I've been a big fan of the pod since the early days. Thank you for what you do. I'm a paediatrician and I live in Minnesota. I was in London for the first time during the holiday break, and as we've been Premier League fans for many years, I thought it would be nice to catch a Premier League match.

1:18:21I joined several paid memberships to three Premier League clubs, hoping that would grant me access to tickets, but it didn't work. I'm sure the Premier League clubs will be delighted by that. My 16-year-old son Ben had the genius idea of catching a non-league match. So there we were on December 27th at Flamingo Park in Chislehurst on a cold winter night, watching the oldest club in London. We bought VIP tickets, VIP I think a bit of a stretch, to Cray Wanderers versus Cray Valley PM in the 6th or 7th, still can't figure that out, division in English football. Roger, don't worry, no one knows what tier anything is below 5.

1:18:55Towards the end of the match, as the 1s were up 5-0, the fans chanted there's only one cray in London to the tune of Guantanamera that wasn't true in the 60s there was Reggie and Ron as well this was such a pure soccer experience it's hard to put into words almost like being invited to this great family event my question to you both is do either of you support or keep up or attend any non-league teams that you somewhat follow cheers Roger I'd have said Aviles but it would be a field not sure I don't know I don't know in America Rog tell us how you say your last name did I just butcher it but what a letter raw What an adventure.

1:19:29So many of you great friends of the pod are now travelling over to watch Premier League games on the regs. When I get on a flight back to England near the weekend, it is thrilling to meet so many of you who are going over there. And a number of you are doing lower league travel. I actually have no idea of your lower league predilections, Roar. So please, brief us in. Well, I mean, Harrogate Town is the obvious one, which is sort of my local club. When I was a kid, Harrogate Town was one of two teams in Harrogate, which is not a very big place. Who were the other Cray Wanderers? The other ones are Harrogate Railway, who play in green and red.

1:20:04Harrogate Town play in blue and yellow. Do we proper hate them? Yeah, they're strong. Absolute strong railway. No, but neither of them were anything you'd really think about. They were very small scale, non-league teams. and then Harrogate Town, unlike Railway, got a kind of visionary manager who then brought in the owner who is also his dad and they have risen up through the Leeds all the way to Leeds 2. They are struggling really badly this season but they've been there for three or four years now and the fact that there is football, Leeds football in Harrogate still amazes me because I remember kind of Harrogate Town when they would have been sixth or seventh tier I guess but I've got to admit the more accurate answer is my kind of semi-professional sporting commitment my greatest one is not in football it's in rugby league Rog at my beloved Keithley Cougars which is the rugby league team that's relatively close 15-20 minutes away I did a story on them for the New York Times a few years ago and got to know the owners and fell in love with the story of the club which is I think the only the only sports team in Europe owned by a gay couple and taking Ed my little boy to watch rugby league a couple of times a year maybe a little bit more if we if we have the chance it's helped us bond and have a thing that we do together that's really important it's broadened my sporting horizons but there is something amazing about going to any live sport whether it is football or whatever else it might be to be with people to be part of a community that cares about this one thing the fact that it's rugby league doesn't make any difference it's still kind of something i look forward to enormously and it do you know what it produces a considerable amount of drama i would say it gives me a good dramatic sunday every so often don't know what the american equivalent is of the rugby league is it like taking your kid to like a monster truck smash and crash uh demo but listeners that that might be more refined why is that what is the american rugby league i don't know i want to say rog i love your letter because when I was a kid, Everton playing away, I'd often go with my dad to watch Liverpool's other club, Marine, played across the water.

1:22:17They played in Crosby. They play in the National League North, which is, I think, the sixth tier of English football. And they were always, always, always deep in the bowels of the league. But it didn't matter at all to me or to anybody there. I loved it because you were A, right on top of the pitch, right on top of everything. Everyone was in the action. and everyone there, including us, like the left back, we'd go because he was the kid of someone we knew really, really well. And everyone knew the players. Everyone was rooting for them. Everyone had familial tiles. And it felt so muddy and real and dream-filled.

1:22:51And I loved it. Almost as much as going to Goodison Park, to be candid, there's a true power in the commercialised era, even more, to be honest, of sampling lower league football. It's simplicity, it's naivety, it's roots. It's the everything showing nature of it. Just the tiny dreams with massive power. Macclesfield playing tonight in the FA Cup. Slayers of Crystal Palace really embody that. I took my kids a couple of years ago, went to a bunch of Premier League games over Christmas, went to Arsenal and Palace. It was both amazing. Palace at Selhurst Park was sensational. But the game they loved the most was watching Boreham Wood play Barnet in the National League.

1:23:30They watched the Boreham Wood fans, a really hardy bunch of young, incredible human beings chanting, oh, the wood! And wood, wood, wood! For like, all variations essentially on the eggplant emoji, which I just love for 90 whole minutes. And it was beautiful. I'd love to do a trip roar where we bring listeners over to England. We'll definitely do a Premier League game, but also to watch like Boreham Wood or Leighton Orient. Just, I think it's almost the juxtaposition that carries the power. it's easy for me to say this as someone who obviously lives in England and has had the opportunity to go to a lot of these stadiums but if you're coming from the States and you're struggling to get tickets for a Premier League game because there's so much competition they're so hard to get hold of go to a, not even a non-lead game go to a football league game go to a game at a club with a weird name that is somewhere close to your itinerary because that is where you will see an aspect of English football soul and you will understand it just a little bit more.

1:24:33It will help. You might not... It will help you appreciate how good football in the Premier League is for a start, but it will also help you understand kind of the social phenomenon of football in Britain, in Europe. I would say, yeah, go. You should always go to a football match. You see how a lot of humanity is the honest truth. Oh, the humanity. Thank you for your letter. Roger Aviles, Roger Aviles, maybe it is. Who knows, Rog, it's a mystery. Keep writing to all of us here at menandblazers at gmail.com. I do try and answer everything that comes in. That is it for today. 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.

1:25:14Discover what's possible in sports and in life. What would you like the power to do? I'm headed to England on Tuesday to shoot with a really lovely footballer who is manager-obsessed. then LA on Friday for a very brief fleeting show on Friday. Now, Roar, you're a beautiful human being. I will rock it with you on Friday from LA. Big, big love to you. Thank you. I hope you have a rain-filled trip to England, Rog. I wouldn't want it any other way. This is Rog saying, let's not take a second of watching football together for granted and courage.