Premier League Season Preview Pt. 2: Men in Blazers 08/13/25

23:08Spurs though, this evangelism, there's definitely a more sensible nature to this religion. If anything, little Tom's religion.

23:20You can't call him little Tom. What's Danish for little Tom? I think that'll probably work. It's like the religion, what religion? It's like ethical culture, right? It's like, it's very rational. You told me it's possibly the most sensible appointment any club has ever made, which I love. Because, you know, I don't do hyperbole. But I love Spurs. I love Thomas Frank. It has been fascinating watching him so far trying to navigate seven years at Brentford where he did control everything. You know, the quality, the calibre of the players, the setup, the expectations. Everything is now stepped up for him.

23:55I believe he can do it. You know, ultimately, he's kind of begun a bit like one of those sitcoms where the country bumpkin comes to the big city and is exploring it. He's got real like Eddie Murphy coming to America vibes. I hope he can ace this. But let's move to another magical coach. Unai Emery at Aston Villa. Not in the South. Shocked to be in the South. Shocked, I tell you. But, you know, when you're making podcasts up, you make your own rules.

24:20Roger Bennett:When you create artificial borders, like all borders, they're artificial. Yeah. Then you have problems. and I think podcast formats are unrelenting I was thinking about this between episodes Rog I think the answer to the question the way to settle it is is to do an NFC Central is that place in the south Birmingham is not in the north but it is very much not in the south it's more in the north than it is the south this is so amazing I don't know what to tell you other than I realise there's nothing to tell me just say yes should have been three episodes that's the reality we should have done an NFC Central but let's pretend let's suspend reality say Aston Villa you're jammed in and sometimes you know in conferences in American sports you have teams in that don't quite fit Atlanta will play in the California division God bless the California division get with me baby we're going to have lots of fun what is Rory smoking what is the California it's what we say it is as we say Aston Villa in the south and Aston Villa I mean the joy of last season's return to Champions League that was really effervescent another harsh reality of failing to re-qualify, hampered by financial fair play PSR issues, stymied really the flow of incoming reinforcements.

25:33This season's going to rest a lot on Unai Emery's cagey tactical brilliance, right? That's what we look to him for, his man-management, his tactical obsession. Villa feel a little bit like they could be on a pathway. They thought it was a return to glory.

25:45Roger Bennett:It could be stalling out. Yeah, the difficulty they've got, and this is the bit where I get a little bit annoyed about the kind of conversation around PSR, is not that they're being prevented from spending. It's that they have already spent so much that they are at their limits. You know, we looked at Villa last season and said, even before they signed Rashford and Asensio on loan, and Daniel Marlon for an actual fee, that they were kind of operating at like 90 % of their turnover was going on wages. That's unsustainable for any business, for any club. You shouldn't, as a fan, and try not to tell fans how to behave, but you shouldn't be saying, I want my club to be spending more money on wages than they earn.

26:26Roger Bennett:That's very clearly a bad idea. Financial recklessness, it's why we watch. We shouldn't be encouraging it. And to me, it's right that there are rules in place to guard against it. Whether the rules as they are are right, I don't know, but there should be rules. So Villa are having a bit of a kind of recalibration, a bit of a reckoning this summer. They need to get a couple out. But they're in the same position as Newcastle, where they almost don't really think they should have to do that because they feel like a big club, because Villa are a big club. So they shouldn't have to sell anybody. They shouldn't have to kind of accept that sometimes you need to take a step back to take a step forward.

26:59Roger Bennett:And it feels like they're kind of caught in a logjam a little bit. So with Emery there, they'll be fine. They will finish in the top eight of the Premier League. But to get to the top four, the top five, you maybe need to make some difficult decisions. Yeah, you know, ultimately your point is we're all just cheering for spreadsheets. All of us, we're not football fans. We're just accountants working taxis in an H &R block. By the way, if UCLA can play in the Big Ten, then anything's possible. Don't know what that means. I know. You've come up with your California conference crap on me. I'm just coming back, baby.

27:32From one great manager facing a massive challenge to another, Crystal Palace. Another best of times, worst of times situation. Palace had the euphoria of the club's first trophy in 119 years. They then won another one within three months. But then there was the cruelty of being dumped into the conference league because UEFA said Palace had breached its rules on multi-club ownership. That uncertainty has led to a knock-on effect, a lack of transfers and the threat of Eberit Giese, their hobby, Mark Gahey, their real rock at the back, departing. And the worry is Oliver Glasner, the brain in a bottle who has created such a tenacious culture, a ferocious culture, has said cryptically, these are his words, my fate is, quote, the same as Mark's.

28:20Is this just the truth of non-Big Six football that happiness is eternally doomed just to be fleeting?

28:28Roger Bennett:I think it's not necessarily the truth, but it's kind of the most likely outcome. And there is a worry. I don't think there's been a more admirable club over the last 18 months than Crystal Palace. Even as someone who supports another football team, being at the semi-final of the FA Cup and the final last May, last April, last May, it was really hard not to be swept away by how great their fans are, by the kind of euphoria around the club, by the meaning that those games had for that team. To the extent that when they beat Liverpool to win the Community Shield, I was legitimately quite happy for them.

28:58It hurt and shattered him,

29:00Roger Bennett:but you're a big man. You big manned it, didn't you? If I could lose the Community Shield, which deep down I do not care about to anybody, Rog, it would be to Crystal Palace. Even more so than into Miami. Do you know what? In fact, it's not just Crystal Palace, it's Leeds, then into Miami. Fair. But the worry is that that might kind of prove to be the high point because, you know, as we're recording, Eber Eche-Eze and Mark Gay are both Palace players and Oliver Glasner is the Palace manager. There is a chance that by the end of August, at least two of those things, maybe three of those things, I think not three of those things, but at least two of them are no longer true.

29:34Roger Bennett:Gay, Steve Parrish, the club's kind of executive, the minority owner who runs the club. Chairman. Chairman is the word I'm looking for. Chairperson. Chairperson. Chair. Steve Parrish, the club's chair. The chair with the hair. The chair with the hair. That's a great name for Steve Parrish. There you go. Little Tom, not so good. Chair with the hair, we're doing business. We're finally workshopping some good stuff here, Rog. Thank you. The chair with the hair has said that they can't afford to let Gay leave on a free. He's made it pretty clear he's not renewing his contract. Liverpool and Newtassel are both sniffing around him.

30:04Roger Bennett:He, it looks like, will go. Eze, I think, is a little bit less likely, if I'm honest, just because there must be part of Eberich Eze that is wondering, how first team am I at Arsenal? But that said... How Champions League am I with football? He's very Champions League at Arsenal, that is true. So it may well be that Palace go into this season, once it's up and running, without their two best players. I don't think Glasner will leave, if I'm completely honest. The test will be, can they replace Gay and Eze pretty quickly and sustain what they've become? Because it would be such a shame to see that fall apart.

30:40Roger Bennett:That's Will Hughes erasure. That is Will Hughes. But it's also Adam Wharton erasure. I know, I know. Because Adam Wharton is, and next summer, we will be having this conversation about Palace losing Wharton, but they will at least be losing Wharton, I think, for somewhere close to£100 million. Where there's Will Hughes, there is. By the way, if Will Hughes, that ability, had Gwendouzi's face, I'm pretty convinced Gwendouzi was a professional footballist because he had professional footballer hair. Like, we'd be talking about Will Hughes. I'm pretty convinced as one of the most ferocious midfielders in football, because Will Hughes looks like he does.

31:14he never ever ever ever ever gets mentioned he's a phenomenal footballer yeah there's a few like

31:19Roger Bennett:that who just look a little bit too they look a bit too delicate and i think there is definitely like i mean this is part of money ball isn't it that there's an element in scouting of the eye test and i think to a lot of scouts will hughes looks he looks a little bit like an elfin prince yeah will hughes is like in the stephen naismith category what you can't see you can't defend the cloak of invisibility that kind of very very very light skin translucence you know guendouzi you bounce around, you're seeing the hair, you're in the rhythm, you're feeling the vibe, he's crap at football, but like, Will Hughes because he looks like he does like Stephen Naismith's son, we're like yeah, never get to mention, I think we've talked more about Will Hughes in the past five minutes than most season previews we'll mention Will Hughes and he's a phenomenal footballer.

32:02Roger Bennett:I think there is a point though where you have to, as a club, decide is it suitable for this person to be outdoors in the sunshine and with both Will Hughes, he's good at the night games. Play Will Hughes at night, same as Nasey. By the way, Conference League, he's going to destroy you. He's going to have a well of the time. All those night-time kickoffs in December. Under the floodlights. Made for it, man. From Palace, whom I utterly adore, to another admirable team, Bournemouth, your golden war cherries. I love that club. I love their approach to life and football. Bill Foley, the owner of your Las Vegas NHL team.

32:37Every sports team he has lived by his life in the Marines. That Creed. We were in the boardroom filming with Tyler Adams yesterday. It says in huge letters always advance, never retreat, which I don't think you can say in an English accent. I think you need to put on a terrible American accent when you say it. When you say it in English, always advance, never retreat. Always advance, never retreat?

33:01Roger Bennett:Always what? It sounds like a question. Always advance. Are you saying that in terms of uplifting mottos it's the same? Always treat, mmm, treat, what? Is it the same as a slogan as the state in which ESPN are headquartered. It's a thing you can't say in an English accent. Oh, you mean Connecticut? Can't say it in an English accent. What do you call it? I call it like it should be pronounced, Connecticut. Yes, that's true. Americans call Leicester as it should be pronounced. But I love his creed. They thrilled me last season. They really, really did. We made a beautiful film about them. Just the resources, but the ambition, almost making that ambition come through.

33:38So this season, it's been a bit like watching the good Southampton team of like the 2015s just be stripped for, but a great Dorman team of Europe be stripped for parts. Bigger teams just been saying, get back down the food chain. That chill guy, Dean Housen,$68 million to Real Madrid. Milos Kerkhez, Liverpool, what was it like,$54,$55 million. Zabani set to leave for PSG. Kepa gone to Arsenal. Bournemouth, yes, off their highest ever points total. Ninth place finish, and that ties a club record. I was there yesterday with Tyler. I just say there's a lot of uncertainty around the club. Andoni Irola, their Murakami quoting coach.

34:20I love that man too. He's got one year left on his contract. Roar, they lost Solanke the year before and kept on rolling. Is it a year of deflation, or is it like in recruitment we trust?

34:31Roger Bennett:That's the big test, because they've recruited brilliantly for the last couple of years, Bournemouth, and it meant that they could weather the loss of Solanke basically pretty easily without really noticing. They got£60 million,£70 million,$80 million, something like that, and just kind of kept on bouncing. It's a bit different when you lose your entire defence. If we're all completely honest, that's not great. It's the middle of August, the season starts in a few days, and they have lost their entire defence. They are at Liverpool on the opening day, on Friday night. I am pretty sure that the Bournemouth we see that night will be what we get from Bournemouth this year.

35:05Roger Bennett:They will be dangerous going forward because most of the attack is still in place. But I think that losing Zabani potentially, definitely losing Heysen, definitely losing Kyrgyz, that will take them some time to recover from. It's a real test of their recruitment, which has been good. But you're trying to capture lightning in a bottle twice and that's hard. Another team in that Premier League, supposedly vaunted middle class, Fulham. really frustrating off-season of inactivity. Little in terms of big change from our Discord channel, Roar. A question from T Cook. Rory, what's the sense of Marco Silva as a manager right now in Europe?

35:43Fulham seemingly stagnant in the summer transfer market, aside from fending off challenges for Tete and Muniz. It seems like his fast car ambition may be hitting Karn's moustachioed wall of reality. I don't know what that is, but I love it. of all the assets I dread losing to another club right now the departure of his stable leadership and tactical prowess may be the one I fear the most

36:06Roger Bennett:yeah with good reason I think that Silva has completely rehabilitated whatever reputational damage he suffered from Everton it shouldn't have been very much because I'm still a bit baffled by why Everton sacked him it still seems a bit weird I was going to say Fulham don't worry you can survive it's a life after love there is we're doing alright without him sort of but I don't really get why he got sacked But anyway, that's a different matter. Because we hate ourselves. Come on. We can't have nice things. No, that was. Fulham. Fulham. As long as Silva's there, Fulham will be fine. And I suspect that the thing that's keeping Silva there is that he's not...

36:40Roger Bennett:He's kind of having like a... It's very quiet success, isn't it? It's kind of... It's not showy success. It's not the sort of success that gets people really sort of heft up and think, oh, I've got to have that guy. I've got to have that manager. it's the quiet success of competence and adequacy. Fulham will not get relegated. Is he a technocrat? He's kind of like... I've never quite understood what a technocrat is but is he what? He reminds me a little bit of Romano Prodi who was Prime Minister of Italy. He was like the boring Prime Minister of Italy and they'd had like 10 Prime Ministers in three months and they were like, let's give this job to the most boring man we can find.

37:19Roger Bennett:And he was just really good at it. And then for a while, the Italians stopped changing government. And you were like, this Romano Prodi is not very exciting, is he? But he was really good at his job. That's Marco Silva. God, it's so amazing. The way you've just defined it, it's only the vast enjoyment he derives from all the talk of the possibility of him leaving that's keeping him in the job. I don't know where Silva would go. He could be a hugely successful manager at any big club. Be like Moise, come back to Everton, Marco. He might. He'll be drawn back by the big dick at some point. but the that's on the goose cheating point hey guys Everton will get a new stadium BDE and suddenly all these managers who failed at Goodison will be like I think I can have a go at Everton now they're in a nice stadium Silver will see where we're going Rafa Benitez coming back who doesn't want some big dick energy I'm in Silver isn't when the big jobs come up Silver will always be on the list but I suspect he will never quite get the job which will leave him at Fulham which ironically makes Fulham stasis a quite happy form of stasis because they will be top half of the Premier League stasis I love it I love it by the way I'm pretty sure that's the Jack Grealish negotiation again we're all trying to wonder how we got him on loan it's just like big dick energy Jack do you want some do you think do you think it's like the Everton like the powerpoint they do there's like a slide it's like David Moyes our manager here's the squad here are your teammates here are the new sign-ins and then there's just one slide that's just captioned big dick energy yeah BDE yeah it's like hymns it's like yeah I'm in West Ham another club it's a pretty fascinating moment Graham Potter's had a full pre-season to embed his hopefully redemptive ideas Jared Bowen is an undoubted flashing knife almost I mean a little bit of the Will Hughes's for him I mean he's definitely risen higher Herefordshire farmer though so tough but again add Gwendoosie hair this is the this is this is the new if I were in recruitment and data my when I did my provings I'd say add Gwendoosie hair to Jared Bowen boom that would be how I'd like close the deal that's quite a good test yeah does he look like does it pass the soft test with added Gwendoosie hair that's how you find stealth would we like him more if he had better hair yeah I mean by the way talking about that Nicholas Falkoom is looking destructive and Paqueta is off his spot betting charges.

39:52What's the point of West Ham though was the major question we had in our Discord, in our West Ham section of Discord, at Hogthrob, when it comes to West Ham, just what are we even doing, Ru, is the question.

40:05Roger Bennett:Well, having Paqueta back and kind of fully focused, I think that's a massive advantage. He's a top six player. The problem for West Ham is that quite a lot of teams in that kind of lower middle class of the Premier League have got one or two top six players and West Ham have just one. They have Packet Tower and that's it. So yeah, I think there is a real danger of drift because they don't seem to be going anywhere. I like Graham Potter as a manager. I like him as a human being. He's a nice man. He has some good ideas. He will play controlled, intelligent football. Maybe not the most exciting all of the time, but he is a safe pair of hands by any kind of nature of that definition.

40:43Roger Bennett:But the problem is it does feel as though there is no real purpose to the club and that can be quite dangerous, Rog. Yeah, God, it just takes a tiny change to West Ham to change everything. More orifices. Why does no other club ever win the dog? Dot, dot, dot. Let's round all this off by heading deep into the B's. First Brighton, Fabian Herzler's difficult second album of a season. I think Jen is now like 32 and a half so he's just gone through puberty. Seagull scored for fun last season under him. They also conceded a crap load if they're going to return to Europe, which is what I think they aspire to do.

41:19Going to have to overcome the loss up front of João Pedro. Latest incoming big signing, High Hope, 18-year-old Greek youngster, Cheralampos Kostoulas Yasu. Keeping Caro Matoma, I would say, is probably better than any new signing. But Brighton's model seems to be pretty well selling everything they can on to Chelsea. Tom Burley's bought over$400 million worth of Brighton talent since he came in. I did love the Brighton CEO, Paul Barber, who's been on this show. And if you are fascinated by well-run clubs, listen to that interview. He's brilliant. He said this week, as I've said many times, Chelsea are my best customer.

41:55We wish you well. And, you know, Chelsea have got loyalty points with me because they keep coming back raw. But there's got to be more of a point to a club than just selling on to Chelsea, doesn't there?

42:05Roger Bennett:But the thing with Brighton is they just keep repeating the trick. It's an amazing thing. My temptation is to say, OK, Herzl is a year older, a year wiser. He was a real risk when they brought him in and it paid off. He took to Premier League management relatively easily. And that was a really brave decision from Brighton, a club that have made a lot of brave decisions. But received wisdom is that he was too young to be a Premier League manager. Turns out that was wrong. He's really good. He will improve this season. I think that's probably fair to at least kind of believe that he will get better.

42:36Roger Bennett:but you look at the squad and you think well they might yet lose Belaber to Manchester United Joao Pedro's gone they can't surely they can't keep doing it they can't keep finding finding replacements for these players but they do so this this sounds kind of almost damning with faint praise Brighton will do what Brighton do they will have spells where they are excellent and they win lots of games they will beat at least two of the so-called theoretical big six at home, there will be a point where I say to you, Rog, on a podcast, why can't Brighton get in the Champions League? And then they'll finish ninth.

43:11God. I did, by the way, love in that Paul Barber interview, he said his wisdom, which is the day you start looking for a new manager is the day you hire your new one. They're instantly looking for a replacement, replacement, replacement, which brings us to Brentford, talking about well-run models and maybe clubs at a trout farm to some point, Maybe kind of fished out. Talk about change at an industrial scale. First manager Thomas Frank, the figurehead who led the transformation of the club from championship fodder to a Premier League fixture, has gone to Tottenham. He's taken the core of his management team with him.

43:46Brentford have been under him, the ultimate trust the process kind of model. And they've appointed from within. In his absence, they've taken on rookie manager Keith Andrews. Zero experience as a head coach. He was previously Thomas Frank's set-piece coach before that. I mean, this is the ultimate test of their model club kind of appointment system. And we see this every year. This is what I'm saying. They say they have lost Ollie Watkins. They've lost Ivan Toney. They've lost now Brian Mbumo, Christian Norgard. Almost definitely they're going to lose Johan Wieser. I mean, this is just a devastating set of losses.

44:23but we prophesied Brentford's doom every single season. Their owner, Matthew Benham, is a data genius. Are they just footballing cockroaches?

44:33Roger Bennett:We probably should give Brentford the same treatment we give Brighton and that's to assume that they have proved over the course of a number of years that they are smart enough to know what they're doing. So yeah, from the outside, you look at Brentford and think, you've lost your best player, you're probably going to lose your second best player, you've lost one of the key cogs of your midfield in Nordrard, The manager's gone. Benham is, I think, selling a stake in Brentford, which is a little bit of a kind of suggestion that maybe he thinks things are reaching a natural conclusion. And he's looking to kind of elicit his money from it, which is fair enough.

45:05Roger Bennett:But at the same time, they've done it so many times before that there is part of you that thinks they will probably be fine. My worry with Brentford is they might just have bitten off a little bit more than they can chew. It's kind of the reverse of what's happened to Liverpool. It's too much change all at once. except with Liverpool it's coming in and with Brentford it's going out. I don't know whether they can pull the Brighton trick and lose all of those established styles, all of those established figures, all of that institutional knowledge and still go and do it again. They're Jordan Henderson's team now, Ro.

45:38Godspeed. Because that team, that fan base, that unique art that they've been on has been remarkable to witness. But it is time we have gone over every single team from the naughty north to the sexy south and it's prediction time, Ro. Spoiler alert for fellow listeners. We're about to reveal the outcome of this season because it's nailed on. Rory's will be right. Mine will be utterly deluded. But let's first look at the anals, Ro. Let's plumb them together. Who's going down and why?

46:09Roger Bennett:So I would say that... Do you want all three at once, Rog? Yeah, good point. Let's do it. I would say that it will be a... The reversal from the last two seasons where the three promoted teams will not all go down, because I think that both Leeds and Sunderland will stay up. What? I think that Wolves, Brentford and Burnley will be the three relegated teams. This is astonishing. These are big, big margin calls, Roar. I don't know exactly what that means, but I see it on CNBC. I figure you might as well with these predictions. My predictions are always wrong, Rog. You might as well just be bold.

46:43I hate predictions. We just had Tom Brady on, and I asked him for a prediction. He said, I don't do predictions. They're just stupid. I was like, OK. But you know what? I actually, I'm so bad at them. So these are utterly ridiculous. For me, the bottom three in reverse order, and I feel so sad saying the first one, I do think it's Brentford. I'm just going to whisper it, Brentford, and hope that I am utterly, utterly deluded. I think Burnley, I think losing Trafford in goal, it's going to be just a where art thou? It's so, so tough for them to lose it. an elite player at that caliber and just it sucks everything back.

47:22There's that seed of doubt that is now sown in. And unfortunately, you and I very much differ at the bottom of the table. I do, I believe. I mean, this also makes me sad because I deal with the sun until I die. I would love to be so bloody wrong. Fear not, Brentford fans. Let me give you a lifeline from another of my favorite Russian poets, Brodsky, who wrote, Life the way it really is, is a battle not between bad and good, but between bad and worse, which I honestly find that somehow deeply energising to the top four rule. Let's do it drama style in reverse order. 4-3-2-1, if you will.

47:59Roger Bennett:Fourth Chelsea. Because I think they are going to be better than last season. I think it'll be a closer top four. But I think there's a lot of recency bias and that the Club World Cup will catch up with them. Am I doing my top four? Yeah, I don't know if people... That's ping-ponging backwards and forwards. It's just like cutting between radio stations. So let's do the serious ones first and then we'll have the clown car just mop up the rest. Third Liverpool, which is higher than I'd normally have them, which I'd normally put them about ninth because I'm a very negative person. I think that they will be much stronger in 26, 27.

48:36Roger Bennett:It feels like there's a lot of change this summer and it might be a little bit of a kind of building year. So you've got Everton in second. Everton in second. Wow. I'm genuinely torn on this one. I don't know which way it will go, but I'm going to say Manchester City second, Pep Guardiola redemption arc and Arsenal first. It feels like it's their time. They are the most complete, most settled team. I think this is the year. I don't think it's a win or bust for Arteta, but it feels like it's the year that Arsenal should win the league. And at the final game of the season, Mikel Arteta's asked, how did you go undefeated at home the whole campaign?

49:11And he said, it's easy. The orifice. It's all about the orifice. It is all about the orifice. What are yours? Mine. I think for Chelsea, I think Maresca is going to have a phenomenal season for DHS. I do think the Champions League is going to tie this team out. Cole Palmer out. They're not going to be able to rest him in Europe as they did for much of last season. It's going to mute their title charge, which I do think will come, but not this year. Number three, Manchester City. I think it's going to be, and this is an agony, Pep's rollercoaster emotional season. will continue. I actually find it, I find anxious, anxiety-ridden, but I find it quite hard to watch humanly.

49:51Number two, and this is an incredible achievement, I think it's going to be Liverpool Football Club. I think it's going to be one of the most incredible feats to be candid, humanly. And we've talked about it all, you know, for the past month, the grief will come in waves. Some of the new players will take time to bed in. But for them, we have both sets of challenges is one profoundly the most profoundly human one deeply deeply footballing for them to conjure the kind of transcendent football I think Liverpool fans will look on this season as just one of the most incredible emotional journeys of all and I do I'm a horrible person but I wish them I wish them joy and a sense of meaning and a sense of togetherness and a sense of wonder in that And I'm also going to go with you.

50:39Arsenal Football Club title winners. Arsenal Football Club champions. I mean, it's funny to say those words. I'm not an Arsenal fan. I'm getting excited humanly. I truly believe that Arsenal fans should experience happiness too. I can't stand the self-definition of lesser. This just feels right to me. I pray because I'm aware, as I say it, the chances of this happening are, you know, I see the pitfalls as every Arsenal fan listening is no doubt laughing and thinking about the pitfalls. But I just hope humanly that this is a culmination to a hero's journey as opposed to kind of a deteriorating march of folly.

51:22And I wish that joy upon each and every single one of you. And that's it. Should share the joy, right, Rul?

51:29Roger Bennett:yeah it feels like they've earned it it feels like they've they've suffered enough they've had their years in the wilderness and they've come close that kind of agonizing kind of proximity to it now it's their turn i hope you've taken you've taken the the hard road and i hope you you find your healing um but that is it um listeners gfops great friends of the pod we would love to hear your predictions we'd love to hear your insights we'd love to keep hearing your questions join our Men in Blazers Discord. It's in the show notes here on YouTube, in the podcast. Come and tell us, speak to Rory, speak to dull old Rog.

52:05What are you thinking? What are you feeling? What are you asking yourselves? The Discord channel is a really roiling and quite beautiful conversation. Come and join it. I do hope that you'll find that football is better. We're friends. One quick note, we're launching a new show, Big Weekend Preview, which you can only shout out every Friday you can video yourself asking your best question about the weekend's football to come send it in to us we'll answer as many as we possibly can on Friday's show now there's an upload link that makes it simple all over our social media you can always send in an email at meninblazers at gmail.com with your video old school style thanks again to Yeti for making Men in Blazers football holiday and this in person taping oh tapings possible I've enjoyed every single second with you, Roar.

52:56Roger Bennett:It's been wonderful. It's really sunny outside, which is rare for England, Rog. And I've not felt kind of hard done to at all. It's just nice to be sat here with you making predictions that we'll be wrong. Roar is actually thinking about moving to America because this has been such a joy. I've had such a nice time. He's got to sell it into his family, obvs. But my God, I've loved being in this beautiful space. Also, I will need to live in your house. It's fine. Fine. Yeah. Bert and Ernie sit you. The kids are all at college now anyway. It's not a problem. I love it. Bert and Ernie. bring it on last one Roar what is one thing we've not mentioned that you're most looking forward to about this season ahead what I'm looking forward to about the season ahead is there will be a song there will be a song that is not currently a chant that will become a chant it might be Wacka Wacka it might be currently a chant currently a chant but previously not a chant adopted by English football it might be Sway which you know the Chiesa song which became the anthem them at Liverpool towards the end of last season.

53:56Roger Bennett:One will be started somewhere and it will catch on and it will get stuck in my head and that is when I know the season is fully upon us. God, I'm pretty sure it'll happen at the big dick and it'll be Johnny Cash's hurt or somehow turn that into a dirge-like song or wonder. It will be happening. Listen, we have this season together. We are going to share it together. Let's savour every second. Let's not take a second of watching football together for granted. This is Rog saying let's make great memories together. Big love. Courage.